Brief

To modernise a tired-looking but established logo that no longer reflected the range of contemporary eclectic events staged in this historic building in central Gloucester. To convey Gloucester Guildhall's unique combination of old and new, the voyage of discovery that guests embark on whenever they enter this tardis of surprises. 

Idea behind the branding

My first highly expressive, hand drawn concept nearly made the cut, but Gloucester Guildhall volunteer staff decided it may be too high brow to understand at first glance. Too theatrical and therefore too narrow a focus.

The simplistic pared down stark logo you now see was inspired by a tiny corner within the first logo, where the Gs converged. This produced my idea to make the detachable element the main focus for the brand and keep the design über simple. Three sharp shapes, come together to reveal an upward looking G that speaks of hope and joy. Gloucester Guildhall continues to thrive and provide life-changing entertainment into the future through its gigs, films, art, community get-togethers, classical concerts, and dance.

Brand identity elements

Main Gloucester Guildhall logo word mark with detachable G element in black and reversed out. Alternative version in grey.

Brand Identity Guidelines

Complete brand guidelines across channels, from business cards to large format posters, signage, digital ticketing, website and social media. 

The Historic Gloucester Guildhall page from my brand identity guidelines, showing Gloucester Guildhall's old logo the building as it stood in 1890s heyday as Gloucester Council's Civic HQ. Since 1987 it is an arts venue.

Up to 250,000 people visit the venue each year to be entertained by fantastic new live music, comedy and theatre. Many of the acts who have appeared at the venue since it opened are now major household names. (source: Gloucester Guildhall website)

Letterheads designed for easy conversion into Word-friendly headers for in-house print. Comp slip and business card designs use detachable element on its own.

Purpose

Innovation, innovation, innovation. Nigel Salter of Badger Projects’ passion is to see manufacturing companies grow, flourish and provide well paid fulfilling jobs. The UK has a well-funded and creative science base in universities, need help in translating this into jobs and products that overseas competitors want to buy. Badger Projects’ mission is to do more to create the right culture and conditions for this to happen, in order to change the world…! 

Brief

After two years of trading, Badger Projects needed a logo to help give the company a feeling of substance. The Badger Projects brand needed to continue to appeal to the big players in the corporate world and government, as well as academia. It also had to attract recruits in a way that did what it said on the tin – clever, without being cryptic. The right people would ‘get it’, so the logo would act as a filter too. “Something like the Institute of Mechanical Engineers’ horse”.

The challenge

To come up with something clever, yet simple and modest. It had to appeal to the researcher professor, as well as the industrialist. The new branding had to reflect the dynamic, bilateral nature of the relationship between innovators and implementers. 

Idea

Leonardo Da Vinci’s Vitruvian man inspired me to create a stylised simplified badger, with the IMechE horse in my mind's eye. It is a technical-looking intelligent logo that makes a point. The badger’s nose forms the graphite pencil tip: a nod to Badger Projects’ past as managing director of Manchester graphene company, 2D-Tech.

I try to doodle every day* with my trusty Lamy.

'Smooth and flowing' as my Severn Advance Motorcyclists Observer would instruct, "Imagine you're carrying a full glass of wine on your head and you don't want to spill a drop of it while you ride!". This in turn, reminds me of riding pillion on heavily snow-plough-grooved Scandinavian roads for four weeks in the mid 90s.

A doodle a day keeps the doctor at bay and my mind in harmony with the world. Another form of mindfulness meditation really... You should try it. A chance to let go of meaning and reason. See it as 'mark-making' rather than anything definite. 

Let me know how it goes! 

*More on Instagram #dailydoodle.

Brief

Brand new concept for startup retirement business for chartered surveyor Mike Naylor of founder of Naylor Powell. Modest personality with kudos, this client's branding needed to reflect trustworthiness for expert witness business arm, while staying approachable for first homeowner couples.

Method

Complete conception generated a few ideas for an image mark using the M and N shapes, and a series of font choices and colour palettes were presented that reflected the company values of guaranteed affordable expertise.

Result

A custom font was used for the text mark to reflect his special expertise and technical skills, alongside his unique image mark monogram

Brief

Neuro-developmental delay therapist starting up a brand new Cheltenham practise needed a strong logo to launch professionally. The logo needed to elicit trust yet read as approachable to the worried mothers seeking Caroline Willbourn's expertise in treating their children.

Method

Your Idea, Developed package used Caroline's sketch of the cross section of an adult woman's head, showing a line drawing of the brain, with an X to mark the spot where neural change occurs in this particular treatment.

Result

I developed a logo that suggested a young person's head, and simplified the inner parts to clear the biological elements (the brain) and turn it into a pared down logo image mark. The X became a spark, to link back to the business name: Neuro Restart.

Brief

Clint came to me with this logo as you see it. His original drawing artwork was lost and needed to be re-created for his future use in print and for social media and his website.

Method

Suggested the Update package, and the logo was re-drawn in Adobe Illustrator to produce the resizable vector line files needed.

Result

A tangible logo in an image file format that is fit to use for any future purpose.

Brief

Existing image mark looked spindly, suggesting a smaller business than the consortium of consultants it was growing into. Brand new concept to break away from single person image and appeal to more corporate clients.

Method

Complete conception generated an idea for a springy jack toy, around which the developed existing logo is based. My client returned to his original logo with greater clarity.

Result

Three dimensional plasticity of the new concept was incorporated into a logo development project. We created a further four sub-logos to correspond to the main business tools: mentoring, coaching, training, consulting.

Brief

Successful property investor Mandy St John Davey needed a new brand identity for her mentoring service for women entrepreneurs looking to build their property portfolios. Mandy asked for an iconic, text-only logo that would reflect her stylish personal brand and modern approach.

Ideas

For this text-only logo I looked at over 90 typefaces and shortlisted it to a mere 40 almost possible contenders, before narrowing the list to 18 good choices. To make Mandy St John Davey's whittling down task a bit easier, I set out 5 font styles per page and asked Mandy to discard the ones she did not like. We got to the final eight in this way. These were mostly elegant slimline characters, so I added 'something extra'  to just having text, as simply using a strong colour would be lost with these.

One of the wild cards, a handwriting-style logo nearly made it through to the final cut, for its feminine look and feel. On careful consideration by the client, the angular classic logo design won out.

Result

An iconic logo with universal appeal. The asymmetric top and bottom, give it a 3D feel; a nod to Mandy's building industry connection. Unusual 'A' letterforms help make this logo memorable.

Website icons

Mandy asked me to improve the random web icons her website designer came up with in her Support Packages section. I include the before and after images of how I chose better font awesome icons and improved the overkill on using Mandy's logo colours, but retained the shape in a neutral grey.

In addition to this, I advised on removing the logo in the footer area because it did nothing to enhance the page, as it was duplicating information and distracted the eye, clashing with the red roof-shaped line above it. See the much improved layout after these changes were  made.

Brief

Mumpreneur and confidence coach of mumpreneurs, Cindy Davis approached me with a logo dilemma. She knew what she wanted and how she wanted it to look: a distressed stamp-like logo with the business name making a smiley face somehow.

Method

Knowing that Cindy liked to use smileys in her business communications, and that she valued imperfection in human being, led me to draw some faces by hand. The first smiley face I penned became The One. But only once I had tried a multitude of ways to make a smile out of words, with little success. This final logo uses the typeface on Cindy's website and wraps it around the quirky face in the centre. 

Result

A distinct insignia that Cindy stated 'was even better than she had hoped for'. The wonky face contained within a perfect bubble symbolises the imperfectly perfect person whom Cindy helps to see their own strength.

Her logo now rounds off the website to complete the brand identity for The Feel Good Coach. It has been used on fliers and roller banners to give her a strong presence at events with an ice-breaker of a logo that literally smiles at prospective customers.

Brief

Personal business card for Sali Gray – founder of annual national fundraiser Pink Car Rally, on behalf of Little Princess Trust – wanted to show off her other hats by leveraging this popular campaign for the design. Was keen to use a spiral image to indicate limitless potential.

Method

Straight forward front of the card talks about what is expected for Sali Gray, and uses her favourite Pink Car Rally photo of a line of Fiat 500s getting ready to drive. Its enticing rhyme invites the reader to literally flip the card to find out about Sali's 'other side'. Large pink star hints at Sali's celebrity status with the Pink Car Rally event, but also links to the artwork overleaf.

Reverse side draws out Sali Gray's different roles in business and creatively. A list that spirals around and opens out to future possibilities. Script typeface is used to describe the soft skills associated with the various roles.

Result

A lively personal brand that embodies Sali Gray's eternal optimism, her star quality and the approachable nature of her business. The card serves a dual purpose by covering both sides of Sali Gray: front– pink-car-rally.com and reverse– saligray.com.

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For more information about Sali Gray's fundraising campaigns, visit:

The Pink Car Rally  
www.pink-car-rally.com

Little Princess Trust   
www.littleprincesses.org.uk

Brief

High caliber personal trainer wanted a logo to reflect his particular approach to finding ideal customers who would commit to his programmes. His off the shelf clip art logo did not reflect his individuality, but the budget for this project was small. 

Method

Updated his business cards to physically reframe his current logo so that it looked completely different on one side. 

Result

Signal red colour added to the palette, and his own inspirational quote, completed his revamped brand identity.

Brief

Was approached by Gloucester-based UnLtd Award winner Annet of Here and Now, a social enterprise specialising in dance sessions for the elderly. The business needed a new logo to use on promo material, clothing, posters, email signatures and Facebook page. 

Method

Annet was inspired by a ceramic plate in her house with a folksy printed pair of peacocks facing each other. She wanted to use glorious sunny Caribbean colours gold and yellow and green to emphasise hope and radiance in life. She gave me a line drawing showing a peacock standing in a framed arched badge shape, with the name Here and Now boxed under the bird drawing with its radiating fan of stylised feathers.

Result

Simplified the peacock, removing the harsh frame around the badge, but used background colour to contain the image still. Freed up the lettering, and saturated the lemon yellow to more of a strong sunny tangerine-yellow.