Cotton Capital

In July 2020 the Scott Trust commissioned an academic review to examine possible historic links between transatlantic slavery and the Manchester Guardian’s founders. Cotton Capital is the Guardian journalism project exploring the findings, reporting on how transatlantic slavery and its enduring legacies shaped Manchester, Britain and the world. Our guiding principle was to refocus on the people who were enslaved, the descendents and those illuminating paths forward. We sought to illustrate with colour and motion rather than historic images which suggest a finished story, drawing references from typographic motifs such as Kingsley Nebechi’s reimagining of the picture cap style found in the Manchester Guardian, and raised caps appearing in the digital articles. The logo draws on 19th century slab typography (upon which our Guardian Egyptian typefaces are based). For the brand identity and magazine cover, we commissioned cotton tapestries of the first Manchester Guardian from 1821. Online at theguardian.com/cotton-capital