The idea was to represent music as the fabric of the city just as much as the omnipresent bricks, mills, and chimneys are, hence the brick motif.
The secondary subtext that has inspired Sam Tomsky for the bricks is a celebration of Manchester’s post-industrial reinvention of itself as a home of musical innovation. for example, previously industrial spaces are repurposed as sites of creativity. mills, garages, and old factories are transformed into artist studios and music venues, which allow young people the space they need to express themselves.
Tony Wilson is often quoted as saying ‘Manchester kids have the best record collections,’ which can be seen as a sort of shorthand for the way in which so many diverse influences feed into the music scene here. the design itself pays homage to this by comprising lots of little Manchester references. the almost chaotic, layered composition is representative of the melting pot of diverse influences that make up the modern music scene here, from road rap to post-punk and neo-soul.
The viewer is encouraged to navigate the composition and pick out the visual references that speak to them. some included in the mock-up done by sam are Matt Healy’s fender mustang, an acid house smiley, and the 0161 area code.
Additional Manchester references are woven into the piece through the key colors in the design, using black, green, yellow, sky blue, pink, and purple, which are sampled from the color code included in Peter Saville’s 12″ cover for Blue Monday by new order, potentially the most famous piece of design associated with Manchester.