The Brief
To design a logo and branding for a new cultural compact for Tunbridge Wells. Design will need to appeal to the wide variety of disciplines found within the creative sector. It also needs to work for local and national government and national and international partners / cultural placemaking industries. Creative Tunbridge Wells’ mission is to elevate, connect and support the creative sector.
Deliverables
Logo
Brand development
Brand Guidelines
Website (holding page)
The Method
We knew the answer should reflect linking businesses together, but a chain would be too obvious. Part of our research process is to explore the words that best describe the product from the client themselves in a fact finding workshop. Energy was mentioned more than once along with connected and catalyst.
Three chain links combined to also become a ball of energy from which the letter ‘C’ emerged and developed into the final logo.
The Solution
Three combined links: one to represent CTW, links two and three represent two businesses that have been introduced / connected by CTW. Combining these links to create a ball of energy off-set from the horizontal to suggest movement.
One consideration was to explore how spaces could be branded quickly and economically as is sometimes required. An example being the branding of temporary building site boundary boards. The design solution for both the brandmark and the full logo allows for stencils to be made and then used to ‘own’ specific spaces simply by applying paint to the reusable stencils.
Brand Pattern
Using just one part of a link from the logo we created a clean, simple, positive brand pattern for use over backgrounds.
Colours
Part of branding of course, means defining colours. Five were selected for Creative Tunbridge Wells and their make-up and hierarchy of use defined in the guidelines.
Digital Application
As with any brand, continuity is king. All the essentials are laid out in the Brand Guidelines book including how CTW looks in digital advertising.
Photography
Part of Gulp Creative’s Essential Guidelines package can also include photography direction. The guide here allows freedom whilst defining key points to ensure a consistent look and feel.
Website
To ensure Creative Tunbridge Wells has a web presence whilst the full website is being built, we were asked to design and develop a holding page with limited function. This provides a good insight into what CTW are doing and allows users to sign up for more information.
Real feedback, happy clients
It was important that the visual identity of Creative Tunbridge Wells be both aesthetically pleasing and go some way to distilling what CTW is. I think what Nic and the team at Gulp came up with fits that brief really well.
The iterative process that we went through with branding and typeface was really exciting and collaborative. Nic always responded to feedback with enthusiasm and where necessary, challenged. Nic drilled down into the core ideals and ideas of Creative Tunbridge Wells and then distilled that into the visual identity really well. We are thrilled with the result.
