Somer Valley Rediscovered

Background

Hidden in the hills in the southern region of Bath & North East Somerset (B&NES) lies the Somer Valley.

Somer Valley Rediscovered is partnership project led by B&NES Council, Wessex Water, B&NES Public Health and Natural England.

It aims to better connect communities to their local greenspaces tackling both biodiversity loss and improving health and wellbeing. It helps people to ‘rediscover’ their local walks and sites, their heritage and natural environment and shows how that ‘rediscovery’ can influence positive change for communities and nature.

Brief

As a new project, we were commissioned to create a logo identity for Somer Valley Rediscovered and a short explainer animation to bring to life what the project is about. The identity needed to work alongside partner logos and appeal to a broad range of audiences including local communities, partners, funders and local government.

What we did

Following a brand discovery workshop with the client, we researched the area to understand its history, heritage and landscape.

We discovered its beautiful green spaces, inspiring local landmarks, including Radstock’s mine wheel and its coal batches, and learned a lot about its former coal mining industry.

This research was used to develop three initial concepts for community consultation.

Armed with feedback, we developed the chosen concept, tweaking the identity and adding a colour palette reflective of the natural environment.

The emblem logo uses the simplicity of singular lines to represent recognisable landmarks and the environment of the area. It includes the rolling hills and valleys, the batch, the mining heritage(mining wheel) and the old coal canal.

The curves of the sweeping hills of the Valley were used to create graphical devices to feature across marketing collateral.

As well as developing brand guidelines to manage the application of the new identity, we created a short explainer animation featuring the new brand to bring to life what the project is about.

The End Result…