With less than 100 days to go before Glasgow’s 850th anniversary year, Glasgow City Council has begun to reveal how they plan to celebrate the occasion in style. We’ve briefly mentioned working on this project previously, but now that it’s getting closer to kick off we talk more about the central design concept behind the city’s 850 celebratory brand.
The brand “acknowledges the contributions of generations who have shaped the city, gives a platform to grow a shared sense of belonging and invites people to guide our future.”
When this studio developed the People Make Glasgow campaign ahead of the 2014 Commonwealth Games, little did we know we were building the foundation for the 850 brand. We’ve worked with GCC to create a celebration brand containing elements to be adopted, adapted and hopefully embraced by the city — just as our work on the city brand has been across the past decade.
Sharing the same vibrant pink as its PMG parent, the 850 brand brings icons of the city to life as birthday-style badges. Badges visually represent who we are – the ones we choose to display reflect our passions, achievements and allegiances.
Collectable, customisable and memorable: our badges contain iconography of things unmistakably Glasgow: the city’s legendary bell, fish, tree and bird, the Duke's cone, landmarks like the Armadillo, and any number of other Glaswegian symbols drawn from the worlds of music, comedy, science, architecture, and more.
Glasgow is a city that wears its heart on its sleeve, and everyone experiences it a little differently. We're creating an identity that allows everyone to celebrate those differences, and what makes each individual proud to call the city home.
We’re excited to see how the city uses the badges to brand their birthday celebrations - so far they’ve announced a three day music event along the banks of the Clyde, a pop-up social history exhibition using pieces from the currently closed People’s Palace, and a self-guided online food trail. These events will be launched early next year as the foundation of the year-long schedule of celebratory events.
GCC have created a festival fund for local organisations to apply to and receive funding to enhance established city events, and so far they’ve confirmed GlasGLOW, Irish Roots, Glasgow Mela and the Glasgow Film Theatre have received grants, along with six Glasgow festivals: TRNSMT, Yardworks, St Mungo Festival 2025, Merchant City Festival, Glasgow International Comedy Festival and the Glasgow International Piping Festival.
Susan Aitken, leader of Glasgow City Council, said to the BBC: “This curated programme, which will be added to throughout the year, with activity in all 23 wards of the city, gives us a reason to celebrate what makes Glasgow unique and explore how we see our future. It's also a chance to share our stories about the place we love and the place we call home.”
GCC chief executive Susanne Miller added that the Glasgow 850 brand “acknowledges the contributions of generations who have shaped the city, gives a platform to grow a shared sense of belonging and invites people to guide our future.”
