Boiler House is a community workshop located within a disused central-heating unit on a housing estate in Moss Side, Manchester. The identity explores industrial themes and form through playful typographic intervention and illustrated iconography.

All elements come together in a set of templates that allow the workshop to easily create their own digital and printed matter. Icons can be used separately or in combinations to visually sum up the themes of a workshop without the need for photography.

To give a strong aesthetic we created a bold, condensed headline typeface that is inspired by remnants of industrial signage found around the city. The letters have then been exaggerated to give a tall pipe-like character, with rounded connections that soften the forms.

The typeface exists exclusively as uppercase so that it always maintains a strong presence on any output from the workshop.

Onsite signage was created with a local manufacturer using traffolyte. A material with longstanding industrial use that consists of multilayered phenolic plastic sheets in a variety of colours.

The brand has been expanded into various pieces of printed ephemera to promote the Boiler House. From a hire guide for renting out the workshop, through to a celebratory poster and makers certificate that accompanies work produced during the Men’ Shed course.