ABOUT

The School of Sustainable Food and Farming (SSFF) is a joint initiative between Harper Adams University, a university specialising in delivering sustainable solutions to mankind’s most pressing challenges, and three steering partners – Morrisons, McDonalds UK and Ireland, and the National Farmers Union.

They approached Whistlejacket with a brief to develop a new identity and design system for SSFF that reflected the goals and work of the School

Mediums:
Brand Identity and Design System.

Concept:
The new identity had to reflect the work and aspirations of the school of Sustainable Food and farming, namely to:

• Equip Farmers with the skills and knowledge they need to work towards Net Zero, within sustainability parameters.
• Talk a common language with regards to net Zero and sustainable farming
• Improve farm date to track carbon emission reductions and sequestration offsetting at a whole new farm system approach.
• Encourage new entrants into the food industry and a diversity of entrepreneurial people.

In addition, a student had developed the first steps towards a new logo for the university – which was much liked by the whole of the SSFF team. They asked if elements of this idea could be incorporated into the new identity as we developed the overall design system for SSFF.

Execution :
We moved through a programme where we:
• Developed of a new identity for the School of Sustainable Food and Farming using the winning student submission as a starting point / retaining its key elements, but exploring how it could be refined and enhanced visually.
• Exploried use of icons that refer to the four pillars of the school (within the identity and as assets for future SSFF designs on their own)
• Ensured the wide range of channels where the ident will be used is considered re. legibility / suitability (e.g. web / social media / merchandise / Presentations).
• Considered how the new identity could sit alongside main Harper Adams branding
• Developed brand guidance for the new overall system - Colour usage, font, ident positioning & hierarchy with other logos, icon usage
• Provided the packaged vector files in full colour, B&W and transparent and a pdf of guidelines
Work moved through three development/refinement/ finalisation stages with feedback and engagement with the team at SSFF at each stage.


Results:
The new identity has now been successfully adopted across the School.

Project credits:
Partner (Project Management): Richard Morris
Partner (Strategy): Matty Tong
Project Manager: Helen MacVicar
Designer/Creative Direction: Dan Ayris