Anglia Business Exhibition Brand

Developing the Anglia Business Exhibition Brand:

Creating a brand for a client is more than just creating a logo.

It starts with the logo of course, but developing the brand needs planning and if possible the ability to have a bit of fun.

Developing the Anglia Business Exhibition Brand was a great project to do as it needed to be used across a vast array of media. Some of the materials are shown here – but more were created. We hope this will give you an example of how flexibility can give a brand life and variety, and shows how a brand can grow.

(NB: The Anglia Business Exhibition – commonly known as the ISSBA Exhibition)

The brief was to create a simple clear logo that would move the Suffolk Business Exhibition forward to include the whole of East Anglia. The core values of the logo were to show people meeting in one place, exhibition concept, focal point and to be business orientated.

We started with the logo:

The logo design began with sketches and several ideas produced in Illustrator. The winning design was worked on further, elements added and then removed, then tweaked and refined.

Four page business card:

The four page business card was created to last three years and early in the brand’s development, a Sponsors brochure was designed and printed, and Powerpoint backgrounds created.

Website Layout:

Working in partnership with Free Rein, a website design was created and planned for Responsive output. The brand was simplified in order for best display on mobile and tablet, but leaf shapes colours and fonts were all kept within brand guidelines.

A4 advert

A press advert in tall format similar to the right hand side of this A4 ad, the narrowness of the advert caused a design problem which was overcome by the leaves breaking out of the dark blue background.

The above images show the development of the brand across a variety of media platforms, from small business cards to large format exhibition stand, below:

Exhibition brochure

Reversal of the logo used on this brochure cover keeps the brand recognisable and the use of the three leaves adds consistency. A bit of fun was used making the leaves appear to fly along to the exhibition.

Exhibition stand

Such a large exhibition stand can use a bit of drama! Reinforcing the brand on the day of the exhibition with the flying leaves and the message for the next three years is shown in its trail.

So what is a Brand? A Logo? An Identity?

The Anglia Exhibition Brand is a great example of visual materials as part of a brand identity, below we explain in brief what each of these terms mean.

A logo should be memorable and be able to be used on all kinds of media, not be lost among too much information or complex background. It is to identify the company or product, used on its own, it will represent the company in its simplest form.

An identity needs to be flexible in order for interest to be maintained yet displaying its core values: colours, fonts, shapes, secondary graphic devices and written copy. The beginning of a brand identity then emerges as a memorable visual set of cues that act in partnership with the logo.

The brand is the emotional feel of the combined logo and identity, the visual and subliminal message that the logo and identity gives to the public.

When you think about your brand, treat it with great attention, think about the lifespan of your logo. If you change it too radically too often people will get confused and think you have a different company. Therefore your logo needs to reflect your company ethos and product before you brief a designer, then your brand will develop easily.

We’ve revisited this topic in a new article, read more about Branding, Brand Identities and Logo definitions here>

Key points to bear in mind about logo design:
Remember to make your logo:

• Memorable
• Clear
• Unique
• Timeless
• Strong
• Crisply executed

With thanks to:

• Free Rein for website development and booking system
• Boleyn Events for event management
• Mill River Publicity for media marketing
• Bomojo Productions for Video
• BMS Imaging for producing the exhibition displays and large format posters etc

The Anglia Business Exhibition (or ISSBA exhibition) would not have happened without the time and dedication of the ISSBA committee. To join ISSBA and be notified of next year’s exhibition, please visit the ISSBA site here>>