The click created a new branding for Norwich Castle, a medieval historical landmark originally built in 1067 on the orders of William the Conqueror.
Since its foundation almost 1,000 years ago, Norwich Castle has been a fortress, a royal palace, a cage, and more recently a museum and an art gallery.
It is currently undergoing a 13 million pound renovation, including a new medieval gallery designed in collaboration with the British Museum, as well as improved visitor facilities such as a café, a restaurant and a retail offering, as well as new digital and learning spaces.
The Click, also based in Norwich, was introduced to create a new branding, which will be introduced to coincide with the reopening of the renovated dungeon next year and new visitor areas. His new branding for Norwich Castle was inspired by the body shape of the Norman dungeon, which “looks like a cube and as such is instantly recognizable and memorable,” says Le Clic.
At the beginning of the project, the design team asked viewers to draw a picture of the castle on a PostIt note from pure memory in just ten seconds. “The results were extremely informative and, in turn, significantly influenced our thinking and creative implementation,” adds the Click.
In accordance with the cubic form of the dungeon, the new design system has a modular structure and is largely formed from squares. This creates a simple and consistent format that can be used in various brand applications and templates to provide the brand in the future.
The top of the brand logo bears what the click refers to as an “aliasing device” – in other words, lock slots – which is used as a graphic separator for a number of communications, including signage, campaigns and digital applications.
The main logo was deliberately kept simple in order to give the lock endless opportunities to use it on goods and render it using bold production techniques. It works both on tiny badges and on huge navigation signs.
“We have created an uncompromisingly simple brand that undoubtedly represents Norwich Castle. By itself, the main logo of the brand is unobtrusive and deliberately not embellished,” says Adam Ewels, design director of Click.
“We removed all unnecessary from the logo of the previous brand and brought the visual representation of the castle into its simplest and most iconic form. The geometry of the main brand logo informs directly about a unique grid system (nine columns), which indicates the number of battlements on each aspect of the castle.”
“This new branding is much more supportive of Norwich Castle’s ever-evolving digital offering-from their website, interactive exhibits, social media and beyond,” adds the Click. “It is not every day that we work with a monument that is almost 1,000 years old-especially one that was erected on the instructions of William the Conqueror!”