In June 2020 I was reached out to and completed a freelancing contract to create the branding and brand guidelines for new Wellington based marketing and communications consultancy company, String Can Collective. This company was all about delivering communications to local Wellington businesses to help them improve their communities.
“String Can Collective is a creative hub for communications people that get sh*t done. We discuss, innovate and empower each other to be the best we can be. After years of working the comms grind, we’ve decided to use our powers for good. At String Can Collective, we use our skills to engage with purpose and bring stories to life.
We work together and learn from each other to provide the best with little fuss, you’ll get the collective power of people that have been at this since around the disco times (or earlier but we’re not telling). We’re born, or converted, Wellingtonians that love this cool city and extraordinary region. We know it’s people, their scenes and what’s important to them and we’re passionate about making our city proud. Collectively we’ve been through numerous restructures, redundancies and economic shifts; we’ve all survived and can help anyone thrive through change. We get excited when there’s new work to be done or change to explore and we’re passionate (scream at the top of your lungs passionate!) about sharing the region’s stories. We’re not your run of the mill comms people and proud of it. “
Before each branding project I like to create a “moodboard” that encapsulated where I hear the branding design to go - things like colours, styles of logo, imagery and the overall feel of the brand.
For String Can Collective I imagined the colour scheme to be of bright, but earthy tones, reflecting on how sustainable and environmental Wellington is as a region. The feel of the other imagery that we produce, and a website if we go ahead, is to be unashamed and proud.
The design of the logo came directly from the concept of using string cans like walkie-talkies, using a script style of lettering as the string to spell out the company name. We wanted the logo to be whimsical and really show that the String Can Collective is a marketing and communications company.
Brand guidelines
String Can Collective wanted some high level but succinct brand guidelines. Being communications experts they knew how they wanted to communicate about their company and to prospective clients, but were stuck on how to go about the visual aspects.
