It's more than a ship...

Modernise and grow

Challenge

With visitor numbers slowly dropping for two years, the team asked us to refresh their brand identity and create an Organising Idea that could inspire and enable employees and volunteers to bring Brunel’s legacy to life.

Strategy

We began by reviewing the existing research, design assets, competitors and customer segments to build a strong understanding of the Trust. From there, we worked with their whole team, from senior leaders to employees and volunteers, to identify what they wanted to achieve, how and, most importantly, why. Their mission became clear: to preserve the SS Great Britain and Brunel’s legacy, and to help as many people as possible enjoy discovering them.

Engage and embed

It became clear that to step onto the SS Great Britain is to step back in time and become a ‘Captain of Discovery’.

As an Organising Idea, it celebrates their collective passion for preserving and sharing Brunel’s fascinating story, while encouraging and empowering each team member to see themselves as leaders who play a vital role in the museum’s success.

To ensure the whole team bought into this, we involved all of them from the start and helped them engage with the new brand using discovery days.

For the brand identity we created a guiding design principle: ‘This is Victorian. This is now’. We combined authentic Victorian hand-drawing and lettering with playful photography and a bold colour palette (inspired by the ship’s red hull and black gearwheel) to achieve an authentic but contemporary look and feel for the brand.

Working with the SS Great Britain Trust was an incredibly rewarding and special project for our team. It was fascinating working with the whole team and having them each contribute to the final brand.

Ben Mott
Founder & Managing Director, FutureKings