New name for Pavilion Theatre, Brighton (From The Argus)

New name for Pavilion Theatre, Brighton

9:54am Tuesday 18th September 2012 in Business News By John Keenan, business editor

A famous landmark is to get a new name.

The Pavilion Theatre in New Road, Brighton, is to be renamed Brighton Dome Studio Theatre.

The move is part of a rebrand at one of the city’s foremost entertainment centres.

The planning committee at Brighton and Hove City Council will vote tomorrow on plans to install new and replacement external banners, fascia, letterset and logo signs, the installation of internal signage and plasma screens and the replacement of glazing to Pavilion Theatre and the removal of a canopy at the Corn Exchange entrance.

Bosses at the venue say the change is necessary because research has told them people have problems knowing where the arts venue is.

Design firms in the city have taken to social media forums to ask why a London- based agency, Johnson Banks, had been chosen to carry out the rebrand.

Abigail Bowen, boss at Blank Associates in Marlborough Place, said: “The Dome and Festival has, until now I believe always worked with local agencies, so I wonder what is behind the decision to move the work out of Brighton?

“Brighton branded itself as a creative city and surely has one of the largest and most established creative networks outside of the capital.

“This decision sends out, in my opinion, a terrible message about Brighton.”

But Andrew Comben, chief executive of Brighton Dome and Festival, said it conducted a thorough and competitive tendering process for the new visual identity – meeting and consulting with a number of companies from both Brighton and London.

He said: “Johnson Banks have significant brand experience in the arts and charity sector and offered ideas and solutions which best represented the goals and needs of the organisation and sensitively considered our responsibility as keepers of a Grade I heritage building.

“As responsible custodians of the Grade 1 Listed building of Brighton Dome we have been in consultation with both Brighton and Hove City Council and English Heritage over a way-finding project which includes new, consistent signage internally and externally around the building. The aim is to improve the visibility and usability of our venues for our audiences and potential visitors. We are currently awaiting the decision of our planning application.”