The 360 Recruitment Advertising Blog

The Newport Housing Trust (NHT) create housing and lifestyle solutions for the over 60’s. They approached us in June 2009 following a recommendation from another of our housing clients, needing a new corporate identity.

With an ambitious corporate strategy, NHT had plans to expand and develop their business and felt their brand needed to reflect this standpoint.

NHT threw their doors open to us and we spent a few days with key stakeholders, including a variety of staff from all parts and levels of the company as well as valuable insights and opinions from NHT residents.

We conducted interviews and focus groups followed by a tour of the housing stock. We were invited into a home of a rather keen resident who showed around their property. All of this helped us build a clear picture of who NHT were and where they wanted to be.

The next stage was to throw everything we had learned around to build our own strategy to support NHT’s goals. This began with visual and word mood boards which became the starting points for very rough – and I mean very rough – logo designs. So rather than show you lots of scribbles that resemble a psychiatrists exercise, here are a few we did later.

Early logo designs

Designing a corporate ID is a journey of exploration. Not only is it important to develop something that best represents the company, you also need to ensure it works in one colour, through a fax machine, at teeny-weeny sizes and is loved by the Chairperson’s other half. So we kept going…

These designs formed part of our first presentation back to NHT.

This rainbow design was becoming a clear favourite.

All the above were created because of what people had said or said they wanted for the company. And with a company that listened to the residents, we held presentations back to the residents who had kindly taken part in the focus groups.

Now things were becoming interesting. We had a clear favourite but it had to be agreed by the board as well as Resident groups. We had to refine the design and show how it would look across a range of stationery and other print materials.

Final Logo

Tenants Handbook Cover

Once we had a logo and design style signed off, it was essential we put in place a set of guidelines to help NHT produce internal communications that were consistent and a true reflection of the brand values. These were concise and helped give clarity to a new brand that now sits firmly at home within NHT.

Section of Guidelines

Section of Guidelines

Section of Guidelines

As with any new brand, questions will arise and we at 360 are always available to help and advise NHT employees as to how to adopt the guidelines in practical situations.

Mark