81 COLMORE ROW — Unfound Studio

81 Colmore Row Rebrand:

Making a Mark for Enterprise in Birmingham

Sectors: Property, Professional Services

Services:

Competitor Analysis & Cultural Framing
Visual Identity; Logo, Typeface, Graphic Style & More
Verbal Identity; Tone Of Voice, Brand Tags
Photography, Videography, Art Direction & Brand Collateral

Understanding the Brief

Kinrise specialise in transforming iconic buildings into unique workplaces. Having helped them with brand communications for curated spaces across the UK, they invited us to develop the brand for their newly acquired building in Birmingham. It's always good to be back in Brum.

The new portfolio brand had to align with Kinrise's overall look and feel, complementing its guiding policy: the renewal of UK cities. While Kinrise's elegant design-led approach was already at home in other cities, we looked to bring that standard to Birmingham's mainline business district, Colmore Row.

Playing our part to reclaim Birmingham as a promising hub of enterprise, the new identity for 81 Colmore Row needed to inspire companies to choose the heart of the country to grow their businesses.

Finding the Unfound

London typically takes the top spot when it comes to choosing a unique space for work: choice in the West Midlands is often seen as a grey area. But why should a beautifully elegant workspace be reserved for an E1 postcode?

Our research uncovered the bright reality for growth in the Birmingham business scene. Responding to the needs of the city, 81 Colmore Row had the opportunity to play a bigger role than just being a place to have an office.

Uncovering archives, Unfound absorbed the history, personality and diversity of the city and 81 Colmore Row's building as reference points to push things forward.

With such an industrious background of trade and enterprise at the 81CR building, it was time to coin a story that could make its mark. A statement of timeless relevance for the future of the city and its change-makers.

Under the Surface

The 81 Colmore Row building was originally built in 1871 for a silversmith, served as Royal Bank of Scotland property and is home to sculptures of two Italian goldsmiths. We took the visual cues directly from its architecture to create marks for the brand: a monogram and linear wordmark that exudes timeless elegance.

Through editorial compositions, minimal colour choices and architectural ratios, the brand embodies a mature, premium design style.

The visual coin device equips the brand with a way to reference the building's heritage. 'Coining Legacy' nods to something timeless, subverting mere coin collecting by using a maker's mentality. This is compounded by 'Futures aren't for collecting, they're for making.', conveying a bold message that 81CR is a place for businesses who want to make something of—and for—themselves.

Tapping into the name of the street the building is located, semantics of linear direction help to express where businesses can better position their workspace e.g. 'Get your business future in line at 81 Colmore Row.'

Unearthing Value

This project not only produced marketing assets used to generate leads and drive leasing for the building, but also helps to shift the narrative of Birmingham in the UK. It brings the prestige and elegance of its past into the modern day.

Unfound is super thankful for the support from local Brummie archivists at the Library of Birmingham who helped unearth inspiring histories.

“Unfound expertly helped us navigate the nuances of creating a brand that speaks to Birmingham whilst delivering a premium design output. Their research-based creative process delivered a new building identity for 81 Colmore Row that we are confident will achieve great things and initiate interesting conversations in the city.”

- Cal, Marketing Lead at Kinrise

Unfound Studio Samples

"As a studio with roots in Birmingham, we’ve lived and worked through the city’s evolution, and we know first-hand just how much potential it holds.

Yes, it’s gritty. But it’s also home to some of the UK’s most exciting enterprise stories. With 81 Colmore Row, we wanted to reflect that duality: premium, elegant design underpinned by deep local relevance.

This wasn’t just about branding a building - it was about contributing to the narrative of what Birmingham can be. We’re proud to play a small part in that, and even prouder to keep building with businesses across the city."

- Tebo, Unfound Client Director

Momentum starts here - send us an email.

hello@unfound.studio