ABOUT

BRIEF
Creative subjects and opportunities in schools have been dramatically reduced in the last few years due to the government prioritising academic subjects. The decline in funding and support towards arts subjects is feared to have a knock on effect to the creative industries. The biggest impact of this lack of funding is that it reduces the diversity in the arts.

As a studio we felt very grateful for the opportunities available to us as students that have since been cut (e.g. art foundation courses). We set out to create an initiative that actively encouraged students to take an interest in creative subjects and provide the support that has been taken from the education system. We wanted to run workshops in schools that put creativity into the context of careers and from there we developed a brand that would encompass all our initiatives efforts for increasing diversity in design.

RESULT
We named the brand “SHAPE” as it highlighted a key principle of design along with the more metaphorical description of shaping the future generations of creatives. Using this as our core concept we designed a logo made from ‘building blocks’ that united to create the name. These shapes are then expanded out to create a visual style that carries across the brand.

Our core audience are secondary school children but we didn’t want the brand to talk down to them. The target generation would be unfamiliar with the psychedelic patterns of the 70’s that we used as inspiration to create a fun and dynamic style that felt mature, contemporary and unlike other brands they know.

One unique offering to come from the brand is the Creativity Cards. This original game was created to help students write their own briefs and explore a variety of design challenges, whilst providing them with a clear structure to start from. We used our core colours to clearly divide the cards and a subtle use of the shapes to remain on brand.

The backs of the cards use the white background and logo integrated with a variety of other shapes. Our logo has the potential to expand and integrate with other shapes when the audience has become more familiar with the brand. This helps to maintain interest and adds another level of dynamism to the logomark.