Month: November 2017
Belfast Central Business District
We successfully won the Belfast City Centre Management pitch to create a brand identity for the new Belfast Central Business District. Following the success of Belfast City Centre Management establishing Belfast One as Belfast’s first Business Improvement District (BID) on 1st of April 2016, Belfast Central Business District (BID) is now in development for the BT2 area of Central Belfast. This area of the city centre functions as Belfast’s ‘square mile’ with many large offices in the finance, technology, professional services and government sectors. The area is also home to many reputable restaurants, historic bars, quality hotels and a range of independent retailers.
After a year of preparation Belfast Central Business District (Belfast CBD) has now reached the ballot phase. The publication of the final Business Plan for the business improvement district on the 14th of September formally launches the six week long campaign to secure a ‘yes’ result on 27th of October. The ballot involves over 420 votes from 350 businesses across 10 sectors. Businesses have an opportunity to secure an investment of over £2.4 million in a wide range of money-saving and promotional projects over a five-year period in the BT2 postcode area south of City Hall.
The identity and brand system that we created for the project brings to life the area involved in the Belfast Central Business District, visualising the footprint that it will have in the city in a contemporary, almost architectural way. The brand encompasses the area as well as the nature of the businesses and residence in the zone allocated to the BID. As you can see in the brand visuals the device is flexible when addressing different streets in the area, becoming the talking point for the likes of Adelaide Street or Linen hall Street. The colour palette is reflective of a forward thinking, corporate area in Belfast.
We needed to address and connect with the businesses and tenants that currently occupy the Belfast Central Business District, as they would be the ones ultimately sealing the fate of the Bid. We provided a trustworthy, corporate identity that the businesses could get on board with. The ownership comes from the craft of the ‘MAP’ logo to which the businesses can almost point out where they are located. The identity and type family used solidifies the positioning of the BID with a forward thinking approach and timeless brand direction. We used Omnes as the brand typeface, a soft, corporate face that has a big personality when used throughout brand collateral and business materials. As you will see on social media we created a series of props and point of sale items for Belfast Central business District, which really stood out from the crowd at the BID events.
The versatility of the device really comes in to play when housing the likes of ‘VOTE YES’ messages or “I’M IN” statements in their marketing collateral. The strong primary blue palate also helps marry the brand language with the visuals and mark helping the BID take ownership of the area in a contemporary fashion.
We are delighted to say that following the branding project and campaign the BID for the Belfast Central Business District was voted for and passed successfully. We can’t take full credit of course but the brand identity and vision from the offset was always on point with the ambition of the BID providing a solid path to success. We thoroughly enjoyed working on the branding for the Belfast Central Business District and look forward to working with them in the future as the BID formulates and is realised. Another successful corporate identity made for purpose in the KBE studios.
Punchestown Racecourse
Punchestown approached Kaizen Brand Evolution to perform a re-brand for their established and celebrated racecourse and entertainment venue. We re-positioned the Punchestown brand by creating an engaging narrative and strategy for the business. With focus on the new ‘Town’ campaign we developed a suite of versatile straplines to use across the new brand roll out and marketing campaigns.
The Punchestown Festival is considered amongst the Racing community as the equivalent to the Wimbledon of Tennis and the Augusta of Golf. The best of the best from far and wide and the entire annual racing season compete at Punchestown. The sheer audience and exposure of the Punchestown brand provided the need to keep their identity and advertising fresh and representative of their unique offering.
There is a deep history at Punchestown Racecourse, which helped immensely in the craft of the brand narrative, from the famous horses, trainers and events that have taken place there is much more than meets the eye at Punchestown. The racecourse is not only synonymous with racing, there is so much more to the venue, from music festivals, corporate catering, family days, hospitality and new years celebrations to name a few.
We felt that the best way for us to communicate the wider offering was to generate a campaign that’s going to be immediately representative of the brand and evoke the emotions and sense that you feel when attending events at the racecourse. This is where the “TOWN” campaign was born. Developing the campaign narrative from the courses namesake, presented potential mileage for the brand and its campaigns immediately and it seemed like an organic development for the branding. With the TOWN campaign decided upon we generated a suite of potential Irish colloquialisms, sayings and relative straplines that would become the driving force behind the new brand identity. ‘Get out of town’ was a saying that marries a few points at once, which we explored on launch.
The idea of getting out of Dublin Town to visit Punchestown is the initial response to this phrase, however we’ve blended a traditional Irish colloquialism in the messaging “get out of town’ also gets used when you’re surprised to hear or see something. i.e. ‘I got a new Ferrari handed to me by my boss’ – the response would be “get out of town’. So the narrative bar was set, to communicate on two levels and engage vocally through the brand materials.
With the narrative and strategy in place we could work the craft of the logo and brand materials. The logo, which features the Punchestown Fox (identifiable through the years across each variation their brand history) has been brought into the 21st century with the use of a fresh new type family and custom fox mascot, who sits neatly above the TOWN letters, harking back to the narrative and campaign messaging.
We introduced a contemporary colour palette for the brand, keeping yet improving on the notorious Punchestown red we added a seasonal suite of colours to be used across the festival graphics, easily identifiable with the likes of Spring, Summer, Autumn Winter festival days. The colour flexibility has really strengthened the brand materials and creates an immediate association with a time of year at Punchestown. Primary colours explore pairings that compliment the Punchestown red, gold and a deep navy.
Once the brand elements are married together it is clear to see the visual results of the successful re-brand, which now addresses the ambition of Punchestown as a business. The new brand identity and campaigns stand out from their local and national competitors. Everything from the strategy, narrative, identity, implementation and management of the brand has been considered and carefully treated to ensure absolute success as the brand evolves. We absolutely loved working on this brand as a studio and we continue to work with Punchestown as brand guardians and as the racing seasons come around.