Marketing Sheffield are delighted that the city has been shortlisted for three major placemaking accolades at this year's City Nation Place Awards.
The transformation of a massive part of Sheffield City Centre is in the running, alongside the city’s recent brand development work, pitting Sheffield against an impressive list of other places from around the world.
Sheffield has been shortlisted in the following categories...
The City Nation Place Awards celebrate the most creative, forward-thinking, and effective examples of place brand design, use of data, engagement, communication, and place brand strategies – to meet a variety of challenges from building civic pride, attracting talent, growing tourism, supporting economic development, and attracting investment.
Accepting entries from around the world, they have become the definitive recognition of excellence for cities, regions and nations. Previous awards have crowned winners right across the globe, with the 2025 awards shortlist seeing 28 countries represented.
We're honoured to be shortlisted alongside a whole host of inspiring districts, towns, cities, regions, and nations - you can see who Sheffield is up against here: 2025 Finalists | City Nation Place
The winners will be announced at this year's City Nation Place Global Conference in London next month, 5 - 6 November.
Having transformed of a massive part of Sheffield City Centre, the area in and around Pounds Park has been shortlisted for the Best Placemaking Initiative.
Over the past five years, the Council’s Heart of the City II project has rejuvenated a section of the city centre, turning it into a thriving hotbed of independent retail, business, food and beverage and entertainment.
The development has been centred around the building of the city’s first park in the city centre at Pounds Park, which has proved incredibly popular with families and visitors alike – especially thanks to the hugely impressive street art by Peachzz, Rob Lee, and Insa that now flanks the playground.
Over the past year, several other elements have opened including the award-winning Cambridge Street Collective food hall, the repurposing of the former ‘little mesters’ industrial workshops at Leah’s Yard and a whole host of independent shops, cafes and leisure venues.
We're delighted that the launch of Sheffield's new city brand, Sheffield Inspires, has been nominated in the Best Use of Design category.
We worked alongside a trio of Sheffield creatives to unveil the new brand earlier this year. Most place brands show images and video of their places to bring their communications to life. We felt this was a great opportunity to do something a bit different and mould-breaking, and that's where Rob Lee came into play, supported by 96Back and Andy Robinson.
Rob's pure graphic work is admired and loved by Sheffielders thanks to his murals across the city. Slightly mind-warping and visually arresting, we approached him with the idea of animating his visuals for the first time ever, which would not only give Sheffielders a new perspective on his much-loved work, but would give 'Inspires' a really bold and disruptive asset that would bring to life our key content themes for launch.
To help animate these graphic worlds Andy Robinson came on board, a local designer and animator, and 96Back - a prolific DJ and producer of electronic music - was commissioned to produce the soundtrack to the animation. You can watch the video below.
The launch video incorporates seven key themes where Sheffield has inspired and influenced the things at a global scale.
You can see more info about the key themes on the Sheffield Inspires dedicated webpage here.
The Sheffield Inspires brand itself, developed in conjunction with Manasian & Co, has also been shortlisted for the highest accolade of all: Place Brand of the Year, which last year was won by New Zealand.
We knew we needed a positioning and proposition for Sheffield that knitted together everything the city stands for, and allowed us to talk about the city in a way we hadn't before - and that to do this, we would need external help. After a full competitive pitch process with some leading agencies, Manasian & Co were appointed.
They took Sheffield on a journey to create a proposition rooted in what we call 'impact and purpose'. In other words, it was about making Sheffield have meaning to other people, places and organisations who may not be aware of the difference Sheffield has made to the world.
The vibrant mural painted by artist Peachzz overlooks Pound's Park in Sheffield City Centre and was unveiled back in June last year to much praise by Sheffielders. It has now been ranked as 2nd Best in the World by online street art community, Street Art Cities.
Sheffield graphic artist, Rob Lee, has collaborated with prolific street artist INSA to create an ambitious new artwork for Sheffield. Combining the collective force of their signature styles, they have completely transformed a drab brown-brick facade with an homage to the city's natural topography.
Our outdoor city is inspiring other major cities across the world, in the inclusion and development of outdoors as part of their identities, while also striving to solve climate, sustainability and nature challenges faced by the world.
The Sheffield Rules inspired the modern game, the World's First Football Club is still here, along with the World's Oldest Ground, and the World's Oldest Cup Match. It's certainly no overstatement to say that Sheffield helped shape the most popular sport in the world as we know it today.
Just as we were (and still are) a trailblazer in industry and modern manufacturing, shaping how the world makes products, Sheffield is now also doing the same in the world of health tech - especially for young people.
The spirit of independent brewing in this nation has been shaped by Sheffield, inspiring a movement that has given us one of the best reputations in the world, for a sector that is also worth £1.8 billion to the UK.
The Advanced Manufacturing Innovation District (AMID) spans the border of Sheffield and neighbouring town of Rotherham, and was the first of it's kind in the UK. This 2,000 acre, already decade-old cluster of inventiveness, alongside the world-leading heavy industry and engineering expertise still present in the city, inspires and powers the future of a £200 billion sector in the UK alone.
Sheffield inspires the development of one of the fastest growing sports in the world. From the roots of UK rock climbing in the 1880s, through to creating the routes for the inaugural climbing event at the Olympic Games 2020. We are 'home' for the originators of the sport, current Team GB Climbing athletes, designers and manufacturers, making us the Climbing Capital of the UK.
The global electronic music scene was valued at $11.8b in 2023, projected to rise to $24.5 by 2032. The influence of electronic music on popular culture in the UK has been well documented to have been inspired by Sheffield in the late 70s and early 80s, and still today Sheffield artists, performers, producers and festivals are at the forefront of pioneering how the industry develops and people hear new sounds and have unforgettable experiences.
Sheffield Inspires is the new way of talking about Sheffield, to raise the city's profile, perception, reputation - and ultimately grow the economy. you can find out more about exactly what it is, how it was made, when and where you can use it or see it, and generally be part of championing why this is such a great city.