Capturing a joyful brand
Services
- Brand strategy
- Copywriting
- Design
Brief
Artist, Samantha Rudd, is much-loved for her joyful and spirited paintings that capture the ever-changing beauty of the English countryside. She approached us to help her create an online store for her new home lifestyle brand, which brings her art to life with products such as fabrics by the metre, cushions, lighting, furniture and accessories ‒ all carefully considered and brilliantly executed. However, she didn’t yet have a brand, so we proposed that we create one for her, which would give her the visual identity and foundations she needs to launch with confidence and impact.
APPROACH
We know the best work starts with a powerful and strategic creative brief, and we really enjoyed sinking our teeth into this one! The purpose of a creative brief is to come to a single-minded proposition born from brand, consumer and market insights.
Samantha shared a richness of creative inspiration and insight into the essence of her brand; this, paired with our research into the competitive landscape and the target audience, helped define some crucial brand attributes: aspirational but attainable, playful and expressive, handmade and hand-selected, and led by art.
From these carefully considered attributes, we came up with the brand proposition ‘The Joy of Being Brave’. Anchored in the idea that every individual should feel confident to create their perfectly imperfect space, this captures Sam’s passion for personal expression and creativity ‒ however weird and wonderful that may be!
From here, we were able to start the creative process. The first question was: what’s the brand name? Unusually for new brands, this was an easy choice; as an established and successful artist, we thought an eponymous brand would make the most of Sam’s already existing status and reputation, so we chose ‘Samantha Rudd’ supported by the strapline ‘Artist and Designer’.
Next came the creation of the brand identity, namely the mission, vision, values and tone of voice. Our Senior Copywriter, Fi, took a deep dive into the who, what and why of the brand, discovering the intricacies of the brand’s roots so that she could create a meaningful and authentic brand personality.
With the brand name and personality agreed, we were ready to create a beautiful, timeless and ownable visual identity.
Capturing a client’s vision involves close collaboration, and we were fortunate that Sam provided a strong visual steer as part of an iterative process. We produced a series of visual identities, exploring a selection of routes until we landed on a VI that captures the essence of the brand beautifully, and one Samantha loves.
The challenge was to make sure the brand works across multiple applications, from signage to labels to packaging to digital. This meant also creating a simple monogram that captures the essence of the brand clearly, without losing the heart and soul of the proposition.
We then created the brand guidelines. The purpose of brand guidelines is to present a consistent brand identity that can be used uniformly across every touchpoint. It’s an invaluable ‘bible’ that sets clear foundations for further design, whether that’s carried out by the internal team or externally. Within Sam’s guidelines we covered logo and usage guidance, colour palette, typography, brand identity and tone to voice.
Samantha’s now working on her store, which will bring her new brand to life in true Samantha Rudd style ‒ with colour, creativity, homeliness and perfectly imperfect design combinations! Once she’s officially thrown open her doors, we’ll start work on her website. Stay tuned for a glimpse of Samantha Rudd’s exciting new brand in action!
