Most people know us for creativetourist.com while in reality, this only a small part of what we do. Over the past 10 years CTConsults has completed many complex projects, ranging from writing the Cultural Tourism Strategy for the Mayor of London, to implementing large-scale digital transformation projects for venues and places across the UK and Ireland. The new brand aims to simplify what we do, and give the people behind CTConsults a little more of the spotlight. 

As part of our recent rebranding, we redesigned our brand, and our website and during this process realised that we wanted to add an aesthetic element that represented the creativity and culture that we are engaged in every day. We decided the Manchester based illustrator Jane Bowyer would be a good fit for what we wanted to achieve – Jane’s illustrations balance playfulness with purpose to deliver work that is both beautifully crafted and memorable.

What Jane had to say: ‘We wanted to create something that was clean, bold, and personable, that represented creativity and culture. I worked with texture in this way to give the CTConsults illustration style its own distinctive and recognisable look and feel. The final product is a result of the design team and I working closely together to create something that is eye-catching and integrates well with the design and layout of the new website.’ 

Website: bowyerjane.co.uk
Instagram: @bowyerjane
Twitter: @bowyerjane

Cumbria and the North East are places that are special to me for lots of reasons and I always jump at the chance to work there now.

As CTConsults we have long connections with Cumbria especially, and we have recently been working with our friends at Eden Arts to explore the case for collaboration across the A66 counties and district authorities – (that green bit crossing the country that gets forgotten or at least until a fateful trip to Barnard Castle) –  to see how working together can be good for place identity, community, enterprise and tourism. The #66 project is now gaining momentum – it was a great idea before the pandemic but goodness it seems very ‘right now’ for our build back better post-COVID times.

So, when Eden Arts asked me to join in a conversation with Gill Haigh (Cumbria Tourism) and Michelle Gorman (This Is Durham) with a loose brief, including sustainable tourism, and permission to just see where it goes, I happily agreed. As Gill said, it was a lovely way to end a difficult year, to share why we are passionate about the North and discover some of the surprising things we have in common.

Anyone want to come outdoors with me?

Have a listen, available here:
Anchor  |  Spotify  |  Apple Podcasts

Reflecting on the last ten years there have been the inevitable highs and lows, but doing that during a pandemic lockdown means that you not only look back, but are forced to look forward at what the next ten years may bring and where we want to be as a company.

Like everyone else we don’t have a crystal ball, but suffice it to say, if we thought the last ten years of austerity have been tough, especially for the cultural and tourism sectors in which we predominantly work, then we ain’t seen nothing yet! 

In some ways, we’ve been lucky as we have already been reviewing what we do, how and with whom as our sectors move and shift in response to changing demand. As destinations start to think more holistically as places and what that means for their local residents, businesses, students, investors and visitors, we have been developing our approach to place branding and destination marketing. We don’t just work with tourists or creative organisations, and whilst we continue to run our popular CreativeTourist.com what’s on listings site, we felt it was time to also consider naming, slightly adjusting our company name to better reflect our wider consultancy work – so we’re now CT Consults. We still work with the cultural and tourism sectors but are more often than not now working across places to shape how they think about and articulate what makes them distinctive for locals as well as visitors.