Birmingham Conservatoire

The UK’s first purpose-built music college since 1987, The Royal Birmingham Conservatoire meant a new state-of-the-art facility for teaching and performance. As a part of the design team, Thomas.Matthews were tasked with creating a building identity, signage and wayfinding for the building.

The identity acted as a beacon for the University brand whilst simultaneously creating a sense of place that reflected the building’s purpose – teaching, creating and playing music.

The creative idea is ‘The Dynamic of Music’ – capturing and representing the physicality of human movement and the unique response to the sounds and emotions created.

Working with marbling designer Jemma Lewis, original patterns were created to specific pieces of music relevant to teaching and learning at the conservatoire. The resulting patterns formed the identity and are used across the building as wayfinding tools, helping to define floors and destinations using scale and colour.