Co-Creating a brand Identity with a community
We collaborated with Leftcoast : who are an arts project embedded in the communities around Blackpool. It was a joy to get involved with their community-centric approach to co-creative the visual identity to their latest community project.
We started with a brew… obviously the natural first step to all good conversations and creative endeavours. We mainly listened to what was one of the most vivid and interactive group conversations around what it should and shouldn’t look like, feel like.
Among the chat there was a resounding call to action, a desire to tackle the issue of food waste and a passion for it to be by the people for the people > This point was underlined in my notes and later become the inspiration for the name. The People’s Pantry. What was especially important was that the brand identity had to be in their voice!
The brand voice had to have a Blackpool twang!
Going through some prepared mood boards and sketches, there was some lively conversation sparked and someone said
“it can’t look too polished and corporate like these logos you are showing us”.
So we sketched out some ideas of wonky veg, wooden crates and hand drawn fonts. See the revised boards which we made with the group.
“We can’t use an eggplant though can we?!”
As we were drawing veggies and fruits to see what ideas might work : one person said “We can’t use an eggplant though can we” > Why not asked someone else? “well… it’s a sign for something else” “oh yeah, what is it used for?” Que the ten minute tangent where one of the group explains to the other how the eggplant emoji can have a dirty meaning. leaving some of the group enlightened and others bemused.
We included some of the initial conversations within the design:
Taking away from our sessions a lot of notes and colourful inspiration, we got to creating the brand with two stages of presentation, feedback and refinement.
The final logo was created with a hand drawn feel, pressed as though it was stamped.
We chose our brand colours based on vegetables, particularly those with vibrant hues! Beetroots, pumpkins, and peppers were our main inspiration. We required a colour palette that would complement the lively personalities of The People’s Pantry
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