Manchester—the birthplace of the women’s suffrage movement, atomic theory, graphene, the contraceptive pill, and the first programmable computer—is a city founded on innovation.

A joint venture between The University of Manchester and Bruntwood SciTech, Sister is a new innovation district and neighbourhood at the heart of the city, located between Piccadilly Station and The University of Manchester. Centred around some of the city’s most iconic architecture, including the Sackville and Renold buildings, it will bring science, technology, and community together to create a porous, innovative district filled with a mix of offices, labs, creative spaces, homes, shops, restaurants, and a new arts centre. 

Starting life as ID Manchester, the four-million-square-foot project has been overseen by architects Allies and Morrison and will include nine acres of common space designed by renowned sustainable landscape architects SLA.

Pentagram was commissioned to create a visual identity and signage for the city’s new district, working with John Grant and Naresh Ramchandani on the overall strategy, and with The Draft, who created the new name for the district.

Inspired by Manchester’s unparalleled reputation as a centre for innovation, the team at The Draft looked back to The Robbins Report—first published in 1963, the report laid out the blueprint for the UK higher education system as we know it today. All the report’s suggestions were put into place except one—the founding of three Special Institutions for Scientific and Technological Education and Research (S.I.S.T.E.R.s) in Manchester, London, and Glasgow.

Echoing this powerful marriage of innovation and education, over sixty years later the first Sister has now been realised in Manchester. As well as the new name, The Draft created a manifesto which also forms the starting point for a film that tells the story of Sister. Acknowledging the vital role the city and its people play in the continued success of initiatives such as this, The Draft also created the strapline: “It takes a community to raise an idea.”

Pentagram’s design team also looked to Manchester’s rich heritage for inspiration. A major figure in Manchester’s scientific history, Alan Turing was one of the pioneers of computer science and artificial intelligence. As Deputy Director of the University's Computing Machine Laboratory, Turing worked on some of the earliest computers, such as the Manchester Mark I, introducing the Turing Test, which aimed to answer the question “Can machines think?”, and became central to the development of artificial intelligence.

Taking the letterforms found on early code-breaking machines and some of Turing’s first-generation computers as inspiration, the team created Sister Mono, a custom monospaced typeface in four weights and two optical sizes. Sister Mono’s distinctive character lends itself to being used in many different ways without losing any brand recognition or impact. 

The custom typeface is also used for a set of typographic patterns that can be employed in static executions or animated sequences. These can carry short messages or simply the Sister name and can respond directly to the content they are placed over, either through changes in scale or opacity.

Inspiration for the Sister logotype comes from several sources. The modulating line is inspired by diagrams found within the Manchester Code, a serial data signalling system developed in the late 1940s at The University of Manchester and first used in the Manchester Mark I computer. As well as referencing the code, it represents the porous edges of the site and the gently undulating River Medlock that runs beneath the buildings.

Wrapping its way around the letterforms in the logotype, the line can be used as a narrative device, weaving between imagery like a thread. The modulating line is also used across the identity as a graphic tool for gathering and uniting content and ideas in a more expressive way.

The line also appears in the form of the Sister symbol, a linear version of the logotype and a shorthand expression of the visual identity. Designed to provide impact and recognition at small sizes across both print and digital applications, the symbol also informs the signage that appears across the site. 

The team also created an extended set of linear icons to work alongside the custom typeface. Built using the same line weight, proportions, and simple geometric construction as the Sister symbol, these are designed to be used across the site and echo its multi-use nature.

The new Sister logotype is designed to be placed over imagery, creating striking combinations when the industrial look and feel of the typeface is combined with images taken from science or nature. Pairing images in these unexpected and surprising ways helps to convey the district’s life, energy, and diversity within Sister’s communications. Sister’s core colour palette is black and white, combined with a clean, bright, and confident secondary colour palette.

Pentagram has designed an identity for Sister that encapsulates the optimistic spirit and bold vision for the new district, while acknowledging Manchester’s undeniable contribution to science and technology, which has defined—and will no doubt continue to shape—the world we live in today.