Simple, contemporary, radical identity applied to literature and environmental branding for Friends House, London
This was an extraordinary project and a privilege for us to work on. It's not every day of the week you get asked to think about branding a 350 year old faith.
The marque alludes to the practice of faith amongst Quakers. At meetings they meet in a circle and in silence, Friends speak if they are moved to do so but only one at a time. The identity alludes to this breaking of the silence.
The Religious Society of Friends in the UK, more commonly known as Quakers, approached UXB to look at how their identity could be refreshed and rolled out locally.
We worked closely with Quakers, attending Friends meetings, to understand this extraordinary organisation and transfer their values of peace and tolerance into a simple and highly practical brand identity and toolkit that could be adopted by local staff and volunteers.
In order to understand what the needs were inside and outside the organisation we conducted an audit of all aspects of communication . From this we began to think about a marque and how it could work for the many different aspects and activities of the organisation.
Following this we worked on brand implementation across many touch points. This included publications, posters, banners, book jackets and the website. We also developed wayfinding signage for Friends House in Euston Road, designed permanent exhibition panels for the central corridors and worked on interiors of the bookshop and cafe. In addition we designed external signage and banners now implemented at the main entrance.
Commentators at Blueprint and the New Statesman heard of the project and wrote pieces on the theme of religion and branding, featuring the new Quaker identity prominently.