Creating branding that shouts Newham
Written by Stella Toonen
We’ve taken nine months to give our Culture Within Newham arts programme a face, but our new website and branding unmistakably capture Newham’s vibrant culture. The only way we could do that, was by getting all of Newham to help us. And so our website and brand were entirely designed with, by and for Newham residents.
If Newham were a colour…
We started off our search for the essence of our Newham-inspired design by asking ourselves what a colour palette for Newham would look like. We called in the help of artist Lottie McCarthy, who was in residence at Rosetta Arts in West Ham.
Lottie invited everyone in Newham to submit pictures of their favourite places in the borough, which she all printed and used for a collage-making workshop held at Applecart Arts in Plashet Park. We had some fantastic residents (or rather budding artists!) in the room, who used cut outs of the real Newham skyline to put together fantastical new visions for what Newham could be in the future.
Lottie then went through all of the artworks that were created, and distilled the colours that stood out most from the collages. She turned them into a collage of her own, which was the colour palette that we ended up giving our website and brand designers, the Newham-based Lunes Studio.
“When people shared how their creative choices represented Newham, they spoke of contrasts and quirkiness, the randomness, the weirdness, the rough around the edges but heart of gold-ness. Newham might not be what we’ve been taught is beautiful, it might not fit into conventions and traditional beauty standards, but it is powerfully, deeply beautiful when we take the time to look. ”
Finally, Lottie’s choices were then narrowed down to leave us with five key colours. We’d like to give them names that suit their inspiration: Albert Dock Sunrise, Sky-in-Lea Blue, East Ham Orange, Community Brick, and Plashet Moss.
Naming our programme
Not many people know that originally, we were called World On Our Doorstep. We had inherited that name, but realised soon that people found it difficult to remember and didn’t really connect it to our very local focus on Newham as a borough. We decided to open up the conversation again, and asked all of our networks to come up with new suggestions.
Some of the ideas were vaguer than our original name (e.g. Normal Newham), and others much more complicated (e.g. Oyster On Your Doorstep). Some not very inspiring (e.g. Culture Bricks), others gloriously extravagant (e.g. Let’s Hear It For Newham!). Some sounded more like a band (e.g. Newham Rising), a hairdo (e.g. Newham Weave), a cookbook (e.g. Cultural Seasoning), or a political party (e.g. The Newham Manifesto).
In the end we settled on Culture Within Newham – unassuming at first glance, but actually emphasising a double meaning: that we make culture with everyone and specifically in Newham, but also that culture and creativity sit within each and everyone of us already. Our aim is to unleash it from you.
That’s how we then got to the shape of the logo, which uses colour to bring out both meanings.
Nine Symbols for Newham
Once we had our name and our colours, we were ready to look at the details of our website and branding design. Lunes Studio built us various ‘style scapes’, which we tested with community groups, including our Community Voices Panel. The one below got the most enthusiasm, particularly because it included the idea of having symbols embedded in the design. Our test groups argued that such graphics would not only make the brand look more unique, but also add a visual language for those in Newham who don’t always feel very confident in English.
We invited artist Tosin Sanni, a graphic illustrator based in the Royal Docks, to help us think about symbols that could represent the nine different areas that we had divided Newham into. He spent lots of time asking people at Queens Market to draw shapes and things that they associated with Newham, and then we asked our social media followers to do the same. All of those doodles and designs informed Tosin’s creative process.
The beautiful first set of designs that he came up with captured lots of the different elements that had been raised in his consultation work. He then designed a few more variations that had a little less detail in them, so they could be used on a smaller format as well. The first row of examples below represent (from left to right): Manor Park, Plaistow, Upton Park, and West Ham. The second row represent: Stratford, Plaistow, Royal Docks, and East Ham.
Tosin’s designs then went to our branding designers at Lunes Studio, who made them fit with the rest of the branding look and feel. They developed the ones that now appear all over our website. Can you guess which symbol represents which area?
Here are the answers, from left to right, based on Tosin’s inspirations:
“The bike on the Greenway represents the green strip of quiet nature and community gardens that cuts through Plaistow and connects the borough.
The Diwali candle represents the many Hindu, Sikh, Jain and Buddhist communities in East Ham & Wall End and highlights the significance of cultural festivals for Newham.
The cranes over the water represent the Royal Dock basins and the skyline of the Thames Barrier, while also highlighting the important industrial history and heritage of the south side of the borough.
The African drum represents the many African and Caribbean communities in Canning Town & Custom House, and celebrates Newham Music being based in the area.
This mix between a lotus flower, water lily and jasmine flower – the national flowers of India, Bangladesh and Pakistan, respectively – represent the nature spaces around Wanstead Flats that Manor Park & Little Ilford are known for and the communities who live around them.
The globe with the open book inside represents the iconic Globe library in Beckton as an anchor for literature and wider cultural activity.
The tower and the hammers represent – you’ve guessed it – West Ham and its iconic football and sports heritage, a hugely important part of Newham’s culture.
The cross section of an okra pod (also known as lady’s fingers) as a vegetable that shows up in South Asian, African and Caribbean cuisine, represents the food at Queen’s Market as a central cultural heart for Upton Park & Forest Gate.
The Olympic torch is of course a symbol for Stratford and the Queen Elizabeth Park, representing sport as a way of cultural expression, and if you look closely you can see the five circles that together make up the Olympic rings.”
Creating our brand and our website helped us to get to know corners of Newham that we hadn’t discovered yet and meet the people behind the thousands of stories and cultures that together give shape to the most diverse borough in the UK.
We are incredibly thankful for everyone who contributed their thoughts and perspectives throughout this process and hope that these colours and symbols will speak to you just as much as your stories did to us.
Here’s a final bonus image of our team, wearing as many of the brand colours as we could find in our wardrobes!
