The Menagerie is now remembered as unpretentious, shabby Belfast nightlife at its best.
A medley of musical and artistic tastes ranging from DJ sets to acoustic sessions, rock & punk to jazz & blues – soul, folk and everything else.
Background
At its height the successful venture in live music and art played host to many special events including many Guardian Pick of the week, crossovers with QUB Sonorities Festival, Moving on Music, Strange Victory Presents, Belfast Music Club, Twitch and many famous electronic music greats including Nicky Siano, Daniel Baldelli, Tim Sweeney, Optimo Espacio, Andrew Weatherall and many, many other high profile music brands.
I worked here as a final year undergrad student from around 2012, where I was responsible for contributing to the graphic design for promotional materials and developing in-house art direction.
In 2017 the opportunity arose to revisit the role this time as Events and Communications Manager / General Manager and lead a small, tightly nit team who revived an empty building back to its former glory, uniting the creative melting pot of artists, musicians and promoters all collaborating together for one common aim – to create unforgettable moments together.
Services
- Brand Positioning
- Brand Strategy
- Digital Advertising
- Print Design
- Web Design
- Motion Design
Client
Menagerie Inns
Year
2012-2020
Belfast's premier quirky boho enclave. Dimly lit with mismatched furniture, vintage-shop light shades, fairy lights and charity shop finds.
My role at the menagerie as Events manager and General manager of the premises included a vast array of skills including my design and marketing skills, but also business and customer service skills I had acquired working in hospitality.
On the marketing front, I was responsible for managing the social media accounts; creating dynamic and consistent content that increased audience interaction as well as driving traffic to the company website.
I managed relationships with external partners such as appointed event promoters, communications agencies, public sector bodies and other private sector business organisations while ensuring the smooth running of events.
I also was responsible for the everyday managing of the bar, including keeping a current liquor license, current entertainments license, negotiating supplier contracts, taking inventory and re-ordering supplies – managing budgets and setting goals.
If you weren’t aware or a part of the menagerie and its colourful spectacle visit the menagerie instagram to get stronger representation of the positive happenings in the basement of 130 university street.
This is a good place to reflect on the momentum we had between 2017- 2020.
The Menagerie is so much more than an empty building. Like all good and inviting live music venues and clubs, we were at the very crux of the night time culture in Belfast that felt at the time that was on the verge of splitting the chrysalis.
— WEB DESIGN
Starting with very humble tumblr beginnings.
The Menagerie site had been through a few iterations, but always acted as a central marketing tool promoting the venue.
I was responsible for the design build and maintenance, publishing event content for web and marketing, including writing copy and editing for the web, ad-hoc promotional design and daily content management to keep subscribers up-to-date with schedule and program information.
Working with limited budget we advertised through social media channels and printed posters, however our main and most effective manner of advertising events
was word of mouth.
Making visible the monthly events listings was important, as the marketing of events by both the promoters booking events and the club would ultimately would determine footfall on the night.
The Monthly flyers continued a style created by onsite photos of events and and corners of the building creating an immersive, recognisable and inclusive community feel to engage those who had experienced past events, in an attempt to evoke the familiar.
— ORGANIC MARKETING AND ADVERTISING
images menageriebar and twodimensional.design
other images © courtesy of oppositepage.com
— MORE THAN JUST LIVE MUSIC
