NEW artistic mugs and t-shirts are celebrating Coventry’s post-war architecture – and demonstrate their modernist designs.
‘Cov Kid’s’ design project is promoting what is unique about the city in the run-up to it hosting UK City of Culture in 2021.
The bright and linear designs show creative twists on the ‘elephant’ building, the Precinct, the cathedral and more.
One is a modern representation of the cathedral’s Baptistry window.
If follows further listings of parts of Coventry city centre to protect its post-war character of ‘national importance’, which has intermittently been under threat.
Cov Kid’s website reads: “Cov Kid is a project born to celebrate Coventry design. We aim to provide products that acknowledge iconic images of the city both for locals and for visitors in the run up to City of Culture.
“Our aim is to highlight the hidden treasures of Coventry design through the language of graphics
“Coventry is a vibrant and unusually varied city with a rich medieval heritage juxtaposed with mid-century hidden gems around every corner.
“We are focusing on Coventry buildings and architectural features to shine a light on the often overlooked quality of this amazing city.”
More mugs and t-shirts are being planned.
The community pressure group the Coventry Society, which seeks to preserve Coventry’s heritage, said of the designs in a blog: “For many years the only thing you could buy to commemorate a visit to Coventry was a postcard or bookmark from the shop under the Godiva clock. Now with City of Culture on the horizon several new promotional products are coming our way.
“CovKid is producing a new range of Coventry inspired designs to promote the city. They tell us that “Covkid came from two things:
“1) An appreciation of the city’s post war design – architecture and art – much of which isn’t fully recognised – it is “hidden in plain sight”.
“2) The shortage of Coventry things to buy for locals and visitor mementos in the run up to City of Culture.
“If we’re going to boost the visitor economy, we need things for people to buy that are iconically Cov! This is needed both to build local pride and to remind visitors to come back and tell their friends how great the city is.
“MidCentury’ design is now cool and the city is pretty unique in the scale and quality of the post war reconstruction. Other cities have grasped this and bring in high spending visitors – such as Le Havre, which is now a World Heritage Site.”
