Wolff Olins goes to Hull and back

Branding consultancy Wolff Olins made light work of creating a sexy new identity for mobile phone operator Orange, but now faces an unarguably tough task – reinventing the city of Hull.

Neighbouring northern city York is a beautiful reminder of our nation’s Viking past, fun-loving Leeds is known as the “all-night city”, cosmopolitan Bradford has the National Museum of Film and Television, and even Middlesbrough has Bryan Robson at the Riverside Stadium.

But what does Hull have? A football team repeatedly on the brink of bankruptcy, the Housemartins and a few mudflats.

The Diary suggests that if the agency, which dreamt up an apple as the logo for the Beatles’ Apple record label, is stuck for ideas, it could use a picture of the bottom of a boat as the new logo for Hull.