The trust’s new logo forms part of a wider re-brand the charity has adopted to present a more contemporary image and tone of voice. Alongside a brand new Brand Guidelines document, which forms the basis of the Trust’s new style, is a fresh approach to photography and visual imagery – it’s candid, reactive and modern.
Jonathan Beal, Communications Manager, says: “Our rebrand isn’t just about our new logo – over the past 18 months, our trustees carefully looked at how our brand operates in contemporary online and digital environments, and decided that a fresh new approach could elevate the ways in which we reach out to key audiences and stakeholders, and better reflect our relationships with them.”
A key pillar of the new branding are the minimalist stylings of the new charity logo. The logo, which comprises circular and square shapes, features vibrant colourways and a T-shaped ident. Jon adds: “One of the most interesting approaches the trust took, was to look at incorporating a semblance of our founders. Inside the ident itself, we see two outlines or figures that connect to form the T shape. I like to imagine these as Georgina and Mary Anne Talbot, our founders, who formed Talbot Village to create a more co-operative and connected community. They together well and they’re unique. From a brand point of view, they’re functionally very dynamic for animation work too.”
Other team members, like Caroline Cooban, CEO, see the figures in a different light. Caroline says: “For me, the figures could definitely portray the Talbot sisters, but they could also portray the causes we work with, or the individuals that our work, and the work of others, helps to support. At our core is a deeply-held ambition to reach out to and amplify the voices of those less seen and heard. We need to engage with a huge variety of stakeholders, and I think that modern and contemporary branding that’s inclusive, diverse and welcoming is part of that effort.”
The trust’s brand activity includes a new website too, created by digital and design partners Eight Arms. The website includes Impact Stories, as well as information about the Trust’s 170-year history, including the story of its founding by two Victorian sisters. Georgina and Mary Anne Talbot were Londoners who came to holiday in Bournemouth in the 1840’s. Seeing the town’s rural poverty and great deprivation, the sisters were motivated to help the poor, and initially rented land in Wallisdown to create farming opportunities for local people.
Today, the sisters work carries on through charitable trust, with seven trustees overseeing the charity’s long term vision, mission and values. Each year, Talbot Village Trust awards £1million to local causes, helping people across South-East Dorset to live well.
The trust’s Brand Guidelines are available to download here.
"Our new branding is inspired, exciting and playful. Working closely with our design partners at Eight Arms, we've crafted branding that reaches out to a diverse range of audiences; from beneficiaries across our area of benefit, to new groups, communities and causes that we'd like to connect with."
— Jonathan Beal, Communications Manager
