ME&DAVE FOR DELANCEY
COMPUTERARTS.CREATIVEBLOQ.COMSEPTEMBER 2019
PROJECT FACTFILE
BRIEF: Property investor and developer Delancey wanted
to change perceptions of Royal Mint Court, a set of historic
buildings that had become somewhat forgotten on the fringes
of the City of London. The identity had to balance the heritage
of the site with a look to the future and Delancey’s plans to
convert it into a thoroughly modern business, shopping and
leisure site.
THE STUDIO: me&dave, http://www.me-and-dave.com
THE CLIENT: Delancey, http://www.delancey.com
PROJECT DURATION: Nine months
LIVE DATE: November 2016DEVELOPING THE CONCEPT
By Alex Fenton
Our relationship with the property investor
and developer Delancey began by chance. A
planning application for a nearby scheme they
were working on landed on the doorstep of our
old South Bank studio, so we got in contact and
then went for a coffee. The Royal Mint Court
project came up in conversation and we were
invited to pitch.
The site was built in 1809 to house the
Royal Mint, but had been left dormant since
Barclays vacated in 2000. Delancey were
now regenerating the site, delivering offices
with retail, cafés and restaurants to create a
modern commercial campus. Its courtyard was
designed to be an open area with no traffic – a
tranquil space on the City fringe where creative
professionals could work and be inspired.
The most important part of our brief was
to change people’s perceptions. Having lain
dormant for so long, the site had been forgotten;
we had to revive its incredible heritage while
addressing the aspiration for it to become a
future-forward campus, communicating this
across a suite of online and offline deliverables.
Twelve years specialising in the real-estate
sector has taught us that designers tend to
focus too much on identity. Here, we wantedMARK DAVIS
Co-founder and creative director, me&dave
Realising the need for more dynamic brand identity
work in the real estate sector, Mark co-founded
me&dave in 2007, building a client list to include
some of the industry’s biggest developers. His
unorthodox approach has also seen the agency
grow to become an expert in the build-to-rent
sector. Mark studied graphic communication at the
University of Northampton and worked as design
director at Adventis Group, before starting his own
agency with long-time friend Rob Willmott.