Welsh Language Board

The brief
The Board felt that its old logo was too bland, traditional, and conveyed little about their work. They also needed a visual identity to attract attention and raise awareness – one that would be effective in both above and below-the-line media to promote a bi-lingual Wales. As it is compulsory for students in Wales to study Welsh to GCSE level, the WLB particularly wanted to target this audience with the new brand in order to maintain their interest in speaking Welsh as they matured.

The new WLB brand visual identity needed to be distinctive, and versatile enough to work across a range of applications, including transport advertising, direct marketing, print and the web. It had to rise above the uninspired and uninspiring majority of government-related communications and brands. Most importantly, the brand needed to convey the concept of bi-lingualism clearly and succinctly.

Stills’ approach
We applied our ´brand blueprint´ methodology to define brand values, positioning and preparation of designs, which would clearly meet the Board’s key objectives.

In order to ground our solutions in reality, we began by researching the views of individuals within the WLB and external opinion formers, e.g. senior individuals in the media, public sectors and the business community. Our questionnaire aimed at discovering their:

• Level of awareness about the WLB and its work
• Preference for promotion of bi-lingualism vs. Welsh speaking
• Opinions of the old logo and perceptions of the WLB itself
• Negative and positive associations with the WLB

Solution
We encapsulated the idea of spoken language by using single quotation marks as the prime design element. These could be applied, for example in the logo, as solid, overlapping shapes in a trio of bright, but harmonising, warm colours – claret, burnt orange and yellow. But they could also be used head-to-head as black outlines or ‘speech bubbles’ that could enclose short Welsh and English phrases. There is clear appeal for a young, discerning audience.

The Board’s name appears as upper case letters in a simple, sans serif type style; the continuation of the Welsh name into the English one, without a line break, conveys the concept of bi-lingualism.

Outcomes
The independent ‘straw poll’ carried out by Stills revealed a big gap between the WLB’s self-perception and the manner in which the public sector, businesses and individuals view it. Our new branding, which underpins the WLB’s robust, ongoing marketing strategy, is bridging this divide by raising awareness of the WLB’s efforts to increase use of Welsh in a bi-lingual Wales.