Branch Housing Branding a new housing charity

Graphic design agency Superfried was approached to develop the brand identity for a new housing charity. The non-profit would be working with Councils to provide rented accommodation for key workers, people seeking modest rent, older citizens, and those needing care and support with adapted homes to meet their needs.

During the discovery phase, it became apparent the client had a brand name in place, however, it was felt from the perspective of brand strategy this creative direction would not be effective. A re-name was proposed and the client was receptive, leading to the development of a stronger, creative solution – Branch Housing – which appropriately connected with the idea of protection.

Working on the marque, creative solutions using a tree and conveying a home were explored. The triangular roof was obvious, but the magic occurred via the use of negative space to reveal the tree trunk as the door.

Moving onto the typography for the logotype design, I liked the idea of lettering that felt strong and structural, whilst simultaneously approachable and caring. Consequently, a slab serif was selected as a base upon which bespoke design iterations were applied to soften the feel. For general use, since Branch is a charity with restricted budgets, Zilla, a freely available slab serif type family was proposed.

They aimed to be an environmental friendly brand, and remain digital and paperless. This provided the creative freedom of an RGB gamut and greater design flexibility. The branding would need to connect with two user groups – stakeholders and end users. Consequently, the subsequent palette was developed to enable the graphic design of marketing material to go bold and vibrant or be reversed for more sober, corporate messaging.

Lastly, graphic devices were designed to enable creative styling and creative control of content layout across all mediums to maintain brand consistency.