LIVERPOOL.- National Museums Liverpool has launched a search for a branding consultant to create a lasting brand identity for the newest icon to appear on the city’s waterfront: the Museum of Liverpool.

The world’s first national museum devoted to a regional city, the £72m Museum of Liverpool is the largest newly-built national museum in Britain for over a century. Expected to attract more than 750,000 visitors a year when it opens in 2010, it will be a free family visitor attraction complete with exceptional learning and community resources.

The successful applicant will support National Museums Liverpool – which currently runs seven venues including the Walker Art Gallery and the International Slavery Museum – in creating and implementing a long-term strategy to successfully raise the profile of the new museum to local, national and international audiences.

Joanna Rowlands, director of marketing and communications for National Museums Liverpool said: “The Museum of Liverpool is the major physical and cultural legacy of the city’s year as European Capital of Culture in 2008. We are looking to work with a partner who can help us to communicate the museum’s unique offering to local people and those coming from further afield. We will be working with the selected consultant in the lead up to the opening of the museum in 2010 to create an all-encompassing, comprehensive brand and devise a programme to implement that identity over a period of approximately 12 months.”

As a first stage, branding consultancies and agencies are invited to express their interest by responding to the branding brief by 10am on Friday 27 March, after which six companies will be shortlisted to progress to a second stage.

The first stage of the process includes submitting credentials and detailing how you would approach responding to the brief. For further information download the brief.