To the management and marketing team at Turner Contemporary,

We are writing with regards to the rebranding exercise undertaken by the Turner gallery: “Designed to coincide with Turner 250—a celebration of JMW Turner, our new identity reflects everything we stand for: creativity, clarity, and constant motion.”

On behalf of the creative sector operating in Margate We feel it is a massive misstep to have outsourced this opportunity to already-established agencies based in London rather than focusing a tender process on creatives in the local area.

The story of the success of the Turner has been a shared one by the Margate community at large, rather than a top-down exercise from a rarefied art world. Margate’s burgeoning creative sector comprises a mix of local and recently-arrived skilled and experienced designers and artists, as well as young people, from school-aged to those newly graduated trying to move into the sector, all of whom contribute to the cultural and economic life of the area. People in the creative sector have been visibly working hard to make a life here for themselves: supporting themselves and generating employment opportunities for others, either through establishing new businesses or relocating thriving practices to Thanet.

Rebranding initiatives are not cheap, particularly for an organisation as well recognised as the Turner. This money should have been invested into the local community.

The opportunity to take part in a rebrand of an organisation of Turner’s profile rightly carries a lot of prestige, and a more thorough and conscientious tender process could have greatly benefited a range of local stakeholders. In addition to keeping the financial benefits within the local area, a better tender process could have involved community engagement to expand the local audience for both the Turner and the wider creative sector in Thanet. Selection of smaller, emerging firms could have been transformative, while selection of well-established local practices would have reaffirmed the choice that creatives living and working locally have made - to invest in Margate.

Instead, Turner’s management have opted to direct this funding to two established London-based design agencies with no obvious connection to Thanet, and without any notable local engagement in the process. Graphic Thought Facility has clients including Christian Dior and Frieze on their roster, while One Darnley Road’s include White Cube and Harvey Nichols. There is no question that the Turner rebrand represents just another client project with vanishing importance to those firms.

It is no secret that the creative sector in the UK is very much under threat and reliant on any and all opportunities for its support. Margate is a place right now with huge growth potential - we are lucky enough to be in a space where world-class creative talent encompassing graphic design, architecture, set and spatial design, fine art and digital design, live and work. To have bypassed the opportunities of a local tendering process shows a real lack of awareness on the part of the gallery and contempt for the Margate community and the efforts of those working to grow and shape this town.

We urge Turner to take a hard look at their procurement strategy and consider not just how they engage with the local community as an audience, but how they work to promote the economic sustainability of the local creative community.