On a map of the United Kingdom, where would you draw the North / South divide? The answer to that question will differ for everyone up and down the country. A Glaswegian may well draw it at the border and a Londoner might draw it just above Watford. It all depends on what you consider The North to be; is it defined by geography? Is it influenced by social class? Is it simply down to what you have on your chippy? (Gravy, by the way). Let’s not even get into the well-worn barm/roll/bun debate. It’s a big question and one that doesn’t have a simple answer. Does it even matter? Creatives have been playing with the concept of The North for many years and have produced fascinating and unique answers.
These Northern Types is a study on the northern identity via 17 beautifully crafted typographic expressions. From ‘The People’s Press’ and its 3840pt letterpress, a moving study on memory loss through a disintegrating print to a fully-fledged ‘brand guidelines’ for The North™. It’s a fantastically executed look at identity, myths and the fallacies of pigeonholing ~14.9 million individuals. When talking to It’s Nice That, Creative Director at Split Studio, Oli Bently explains his thoughts on The North.
“This idea of Northerners or the North as this ‘other’ world to the rest of England – either a wild, untamed land, or a land of grit and grimy industry has an extensive history. It goes back through hundreds of years of literature reinforced through certain types of Northern characters. It continues into film and TV, comedy particularly. A character with a strong Northern accent is often used as a convenient shortcut to various well-established personas – the homely and approachable types, the no-nonsense rough-around-the-edges types. And this extends beyond the media. I read somewhere that the centres of power will always see themselves and portray themselves as the centre of civility; the outlying areas therefore as less civilised. And this is certainly true of the North.”
"It's wherever folk who feel northern say it is”
Oli Bentley, Split Studio – Leeds, England
Home is where the heart is. These Northern Types is an absolute must-have and can be found via the Split Studio website.
Moving over to Northern Ireland, where the question of how to define ‘The North’ takes a whole other meaning for designer Ryan O'Reilly.
“The notion of North and South has a very different context in Ireland and it doesn't have any relationship to the North/South divide of England. Although there is generally and personally more of a connection, culturally and socially, to Scotland and the North of England, NI is its own set of complex identities unconnected to latitude. Weirdly it's something immediately confronted with maps of the UK, as what I would know and define as 'The South', isn't visible on the map (it looks even stranger when NI is omitted from the map or Ireland).”
Ryan O’Reilly, Rinky Design – Maghera, Northern Ireland
Based in the town of Maghera, Northern Ireland, Ryan O’Reilly runs Rinky Design - An agency specialising in brand identity, graphic design and illustration.
Lowri Evans, Senior Creative at Music Agency in Manchester, visualises her shifting interpretation of The North after moving from Wales to England in 2013. The poster perfectly illustrates just how fluid the meaning of place can be.
Speaking to Hampshire (it's South-West of London) based designer Jon Elliman from the fantastic North v South podcast, he elaborates what North means to someone who is very, very South.
What does the north mean to you?
I have very little experience of the North in terms of exploring and visiting. My life has been very southern-centric so apologies for my naivety.
Both my grandparents on my dad’s side were northern working-class. My grandfather was born in Bootle to publicans, grandmother born in Middlesborough to butchers (not surprisingly they did not get on) but lived their lives down south in Watford. So I think I have inherited some of the classic/clichéd traits of northern character. Terrier-like tenacity, anti-establishment leaning, hard-working family ethics, sardonic sense of humour etc.
How would you define the north?
Intimidating, unknown, fierce, funny. Mainly I’d say independent. Independent thought, art, music, culture. Very different from the south.
From a Southerner whose family moved South to a Southerner who moved North, speaking to Design Week back in 2013 about his print ‘North of Nowhere’, Ian Anderson, founder of The Designers Republic, discussed why a London-born designer wanted to stay based in Sheffield.
‘The map is a blown-up scan of a small (35mm high) sketch I made in my notebook around 15 years ago to explain to a journalist in the simplest possible terms why TDM found it easy to resist any perceived temptation to relocate “Down South”.
‘To a degree my political pilgrimage North was every bit as flawed as Northerners heading to London for streets paved with gold, but the sentiment in the map will hold true as long as there’s shandy-quaffing Southerners intoning “It’s grim up North” having never had the bollocks to find out the truth for themselves.’
Another project taking a slight swipe at the capital is the Outside Directory. An ever-expanding list of creatives from all around the country shows just how alive the industry is.
“The UK is one of the most regionally imbalanced countries in the industrialised world, and despite the repeated political rhetoric of so-called ‘levelling up’, our regions boast a diverse array of dynamic, revered, creative companies and individuals—and some of the UK’s best creative education institutions—contributing vastly to both the nation’s economy and its international reputation for creativity.
The post-Covid landscape risks leaving people and places behind. If proper investment and support in areas of the UK outside of London are not encouraged, then inequalities will be exacerbated.”
The Outside Directory is run by Craig Oldham and Alice Fraser, Office Of Craig (Manchester). You can see the list and add your names to it here.
While the issue isn't as simple as saying North = Working Class, the economic and social divide is a major and continuing factor in the divide between regions. In the recent NDA Podcast featuring the aforementioned Craig Oldham, Verity Wheatley (Senior Designer at Emperor), Lisa Thompson (Co-founder of Common People) and Charlotte Cole (Recent graduate) discuss with host Katie Cadwell how the design and advertising industries are dealing with recruiting working-class creatives. While this isn't strictly down to North or South, the discussion inevitably touches on the subject and how companies in different areas around the UK are dealing with the issue.
Part of the discussion talks about how accents can be an issue for people.
I've heard people say 'I actually felt like I really needed to hide my accent or change the way I talked or speak in a certain way'. You hear people who've been told that they can't go to client meetings unless they talk in a certain way and it's ridiculous and stupid.
Lisa Thompson Co-founder of Common People
The issue is a long-standing one that affects people from all walks of life and shows how much 'location' can be used to try and define you. Another project aimed at redefining how the creative industry tackles pre-existing bias is the Working Class Creatives Database. Set up in 2020 with the aim of 'community amongst working-class artists and encouraging greater representation of the working-class experience within the arts.'
“Art is a reflection of our time and if working-class people are not given the opportunities to develop sustainable careers, our stories are not represented.
The Working Class Creatives Database is a platform to share and highlight the work of working-class creatives by promoting a more accessible arts culture in the UK. Our Database is open to members worldwide but due to most of our members being UK-based we are focusing our efforts on the UK’s arts culture.” [Via Working Class Creatives Database Manifesto]
Projects like this highlight how important it is for the creative industry to be as accessible as possible for everyone. Over the last few years, the industry (as well as the rest of the world) has seen a previously unthinkable shift from rigid in-office workingto flexible remote work. The introduction of flexible ways of working should, in theory, be nothing but a good thing for levelling the playing field for designers in terms of location. While there's still an argument to be had for the balance of remote vs in-office, the accessibility of being able to work from home, from a geographical, social and economic point of view, is vital to a fairer and more diverse industry.
While the design industry may, however slowly, be shifting from a London focus to a more even distribution of where people can work, the notion of North and South cannot really change until the political landscape changes. While the government continues to pour money into the capital (e.g. CrossRail) while taking money out of projects elsewhere (e.g. HS2 and the 'at risk' levelling up fund), it’ll never be a level playing field.
Where do you draw the line?
I can’t, especially in a post-Brexit, post(?)-pandemic, post-whatever-else Britain, draw a definitive line across the country. The North is different for everybody. It’s both a figment of our imaginations and our whole identity. It's irrelevant and vital. It’s wherever you think it is.
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