A lot of things can go wrong when you’re creating a brand for a town (known in the biz as ‘place branding’). You have to win over everyone who lives and works there. Keeping them all happy means places often end up with a woolly line like ‘One Leicester’, which doesn’t get noticed beyond junction 23 of the M1.
We did a lot of work behind the scenes to persuade people in Shrewsbury not to do the usual going-through-the-motions workshops, and to back something that didn’t feel like a traditional tourist brand instead. They went with it and people all over the world have shown a lot of love for Shrewsbury – not bad for a brand that was meant to attract day trippers from Birmingham.
Our work was featured in Creative Review and Fast Company, and it was the only branding scheme nominated for a D&AD pencil in its category (nudging ahead of London 2012′s Olympic branding, no less).
WHAT WE DID.
+ Came up with the brand, managed it, and did the thinking behind it.
+ Came up with the tone of voice and wrote their guidelines.
+ Trained people how to use it.
WHAT WE DIDN’T DO.
+ The design. & SMITH did that.