Hasta La Ideas

Leeds agency Thompson Brand Partners has rebranded local visual arts charity East Street Arts to mark its 20th birthday.

East Street Arts was founded in Leeds but now provides events, professional development programmes and studio space for artists in Leeds, London and Newcastle.

The charity approached Thompson in January this year as it felt its existing identity – which changed with each new event or exhibition – didn’t clearly reflect its values or its remit.

“When East Street came to us, they felt they had lost sight of what was most important. We had a lot of conversations with them about this, and what came out of it was the idea of East Street Arts as a catalyst – a space to help bring out the best in artists,” says Nick Ramshaw, managing director at Thompson Brand Partners.

This idea formed the basis for Thompson’s identity system – the physical and emotional space East Street provides artists is represented by a white box device and imagery that uses fractured light. The new logo features black sans type and has been imposed on to photographs for event and exhibition catalogues and web page headers.

“It’s quite a sophisticated interpretation of space, and one that can be applied quickly and easily across different materials. They didn’t want loud graphics, as the artists work is the headline feature, so the new logo sits nicely alongside artists’ work,” he adds.

The rebrand has been applied to brochures, leaflets, social media feeds and a marketing campaign for Juliana’s Bike, a series of workshops organised by the charity that run until November. Thompson is also working on a new website and corporate material, which will be released later this year.

“In the past, we’ve felt the need to reinvent ourselves as we tried new things but now we’re clear about what we are here to do and can easily communicate this with the new brand,” says East Street Arts artistic director Jon Wakeman.

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