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Telecommunications

BT Telephone Exchange – Altrincham

Posted on January 28, 2021January 28, 2021 by modernmoocher

Woodville Road WA142AF

The BT Hunters – They came in search of paradise and found BT.

Many thanks to my partner in victimless crime – Mr Ryan Lloyd.

This is an atypical single storey building, with a raised central hall and butterfly roof, quite something.

Lots of utilitarian detail, mixing brick, glass and concrete, with pragmatic infrastructure grills and grids.

The upper glazed area an extended asymmetric, external delight.

To set the pulse racing a series of gorgeous Rose Carmine panels.

The angular porch displayed the BT Logo of 1991:

On 2 April 1991, the company unveiled a new trading name: BT accompanied by a new corporate identity designed by Wolff Olins and organisational structure focused on specific market sectors, reflecting the needs of different customers – the individual, the small business or the multinational corporation. The reorganisation was named ‘Project Sovereign’ to reflect the company’s commitment to meetings customers’ needs – ‘The Customer Is King’. Together with a succession of strategic alliances with telecommunications companies worldwide, these changes gave BT the ability to expand overseas.

Logo Fandom

Which prompted a brief yet uninformed discussion concerning the history of Telecom’s Corporate Identity.

So here’s a brief rundown logo lovers:

Previously the GPO was the umbrella grouping for both telephone and mail.

Sketch for the redesign of the GPO logo by MacDonald Gill in 1934 . The first approved version had two concentric circles but this was soon reduced to one. The annotations also mentions the typeface used as “Gill Sans” which had been created by MacDonald Gills’ brother Eric.

Postal Heritage

The previous telecommunications arm of the Post Office disappeared in 1981 when the British Telecommunications Corporation was formed.

I digress, so back to the building let’s have a good old look around whilst we’re here.

Where’s Ryan?

Posted in Architecture, brick, cheshire, Concrete, Design, doors, England, GPO, Graphic Design, Greater Manchester, High Street, Modernism, Modernist, Photography, Post Office, Post War Architecture, Signage, Signs, Typography, UK, UrbanTagged Altrincham, architecture, brick, British Telecoms, BT, Concrete, GPO, graphic deign, History, infrastructure, logo, MacDonald Gill, modern architecture, modernism, Modernist, Signage, signs, Telecommunications, Telecoms, Telephone Exchange, typography, Woodville RoadLeave a comment

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