The Arigna Mines has a 400-year history in North Roscommon and served the community through famine and recession until it finally closed in 1990.

The site was redeveloped as a cultural destination in 2003. We were invited to collaborate on a rebrand for the popular tourist destination in the heart of the mid-west.

We wanted the rebrand to work in tandem with the tagline. The subject of darkness and light became the central theme for our visual and tagline solution for the project, as this was the habitual environment of the miners. Light was as important as food and drink. We first settled on the tagline ‘Illuminating our mining past’ as something that encapsulated what the visitor centre delivers for its audience. With the tagline in place we then set to creating an identity to compliment it. The ‘A’ for Arigna became the typographic structure for the identity echoing the building structure but also the mining shafts. The lamp completes the ‘A’ and makes a direct connection to the brand tagline.

Once the branding was in place our next challenge was to re-design the website. This gave us the opportunity to develop on the ideas we had created for the brand in a more expansive fashion. This part of the project incorporated original and existing photography, videography and copywriting.