Its overarching aim is to build links between the arts and the local community to bring people from East London into life-changing contact with the arts. It’s a wonderfully diverse, relaxed and creative place.

With a change in leadership, the new Rich Mix team wanted to shake things up (quickly). Working with them we created a new visual identity and launched the first stage of a completely new website within four months. 

Having come to us for a website, through discussions and workshops it became clear that an overhaul of the visual identity was needed.

Although the logo was reasonably well recognised, it didn’t work well in digital environments, and the branding didn’t convey the confident, gritty values of this vibrant venue. And nobody could remember why the lines of the X were extended.

In order for the website project to be a success we decided that we needed to work with our clients to overhaul their branding and messaging at the same time. Marketing Director Jen Bartle saw the need for change and we worked closely together to make the reasoned argument for that extra investment (of time and emotion as much as money).

After an extensive design process we settled on a solution with a layered combination of typeface and handwritten type. This subtly, but effectively, reflected Rich Mix’s duality – a high quality professional arts events in London’s vibrant Shoreditch, and a welcoming community hub for the ever-evolving local population.

Alongside the visual identity, we worked with their team to develop the branding concept of Culture for a Changing City.

The language and aesthetic is built around hands-on collaboration. We adopted a typeface that they’d already been using (informally) for publicity materials and overlaid a hand-drawn brush script typeface. 

Rather than fighting against the gritty, urban environment of the East End, their new brand embraces it and welcomes everyone to experience ‘culture for a changing city’. 

Over several months the new identity was also rolled out across a range of other uses, including window vinyls, billboards, media advertising and merchandise, creating a highly effective visual language that could be used across every touchpoint in the organisation.

And, from a practical perspective, we delivered a suite of tools, guidelines and templates so our client can produce all of their marketing materials in-house.

Alongside this work, we were able to launch their new site, bringing the brand to life and creating for a much smoother booking process.