Hartcliffe City Farm
Logo, brand activation and brand guidelines for an exciting joint community venture from Heart of BS13 and Windmill Hill City Farm as part of our Design for Good grant.
Hartcliffe City Farm is being reestablished as a thriving hub of community activity, as a place to relax, to work, learn, volunteer and grow.
Having been closed to the public over recent years due to financial struggles, the farm is reopening and plans on being a leader in the ‘green economy’ adding sustainable growth to the neighbourhood.
The Challenge
The challenge was to create unified branding that represented the joint partnership between the two founding organisations – Heart of BS13 and Windmill Hill City Farm. HCF’s new identity needed to encapsulate the values of both organisations and present a coherent message to the world rather than a clunky juxtaposition of the two.
With a view to a long future, HCF also wanted to give a flexible and inspiring new start to the project by creating future proof branding and could be taken forward. They wanted something that would become immediately recognisable and indicative of the inclusive and dynamic nature of the organisation.
Our approach
We took an energetic and playful approach to the branding, to show the farm as a living, growing centre for development. To reflect HCF’s values and highlight the diverse nature of the venture, we designed an adaptive logo. We created illustrations in a hand drawn style which were used to activate the core lettermark depending on its context and audience; for example, HCF outdoor learning and art space. This created personality and ensured longevity by giving the branding the potential to evolve and adapt, and was created in mind of how the public could participate with the farm.
Charismatic, youthful brands provided a big source of inspiration for our use of fun, hand drawn elements and the secondary typeface, which is full of character but remains legible.
To successfully unify the two founding partners we ensured we really understood their community values, but created a wholly unique and separate identity to give HCF the life of its own that it deserved.
The Outcome
The outcome was a fun, accessible brand that synthesised the community values of the two founding partners.
As a result, HCF were able to talk about the project in a way that was more inspiring. The farm’s professional, unified face meant that there was an increase in confidence when putting in funding bids and business cases, and provided reassurance internally knowing that the new brand had a bright future ahead. The team feels excited that people will start to recognise HCF and come to love it and what it represents.
Testimonial
“We came to Garrett Creative through the ‘Design for Good’ initiative with an introduction from the Quartet Community Foundation. The creative team listened well to our description of the project and were clearly as excited by its potential as we were. They got under the skin of our aims, understood quickly what we were trying to achieve and translated that into a brand that really fits the bill.
Working with the team was a pleasure – they were fast, efficient, friendly and flexible – and the result is everything we’d hoped it would be. We never felt at any time we were anything other than their most valuable client, which hasn’t always been my experience with ‘pro-bono’ work.“
Steve Sayers - CEO @ Windmill Hill City Farm
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