Twenty years of Warehouse Project flyers add up to a visual history of Manchester clubbing, and as WHP celebrates its 20th birthday, founders Sam Kandel and Richard McGinnis have gone back through the archive to pick out the designs that defined the series.
Where it all began
WHP launched in October 2006 inside the bare shell of Boddingtons Strangeways Brewery, and Public Enemy played the opening night. Looking back at that first season announcement, Kandel says it stands for the start of a whole new format: before WHP, Manchester parties were one-off events, not a run of nights packaged together as a season.
Some things have hardly changed since then. The WHP logo was created before the debut by designer Paul Hemmingfield, who gave it its own colour code, and he has gone on to design posters, flyers, merch and animation for the series. Back in 2018 his work was shown alongside photography by Sebastian Matthes in an exhibition marking the end of the Store Street era.
The dove, Aphex Twin and other iconic Warehouse Project flyers
Ask Kandel to choose one image and he goes for the 2008 dove, which he still calls the most iconic picture WHP has ever put out. McGinnis remembers a long back-and-forth between Kandel and Hemmingfield over its colours, details and the light coming from below, with countless versions made along the way.
Aphex Twin features heavily in the archive too. The 2009 poster marked his second WHP show after a first appearance in 2007, and Kandel notes that he has turned up at big moments, including the very first night at Depot Mayfield.
Five homes, one look
The artwork had to keep up with plenty of moves. After Strangeways, WHP spent 2007 to 2011 at Store Street beneath Piccadilly station, went to Victoria Warehouse in Trafford for 2012 and 2013, returned to Store Street until 2018, and has been based at the former railway depot at Mayfield since 2019.
The anniversary season, WHP26, started on 18 September with KI/KI opening the run, and Interplanetary Criminal and Overmono were among the first names announced. A new room called Vault now joins Depot, Concourse and Archive. Other birthday projects include Twenty Years In Manchester, a short documentary by Leigh Powis partly shot on Kodak Ektachrome, plus a photography exhibition at The Avenue in Spinningfields, a podcast series and a print magazine. In a joint statement, the founders said WHP has “always been about progression and pushing the boundaries wherever possible.”
More news on BEATMAG TV.
