Black Sheep Shepherd Huts Branding
Services
Completed Date
Creating a brand to reflect Norfolk handcraftmanship
Black Sheep Shepherd Huts beautifully craft luxury shepherd huts from their busy workshop in Wymondham, offering market leading value and uncompromising quality. They had enjoyed good early success and were well established by the time they came to us with a healthy order book. Offering a range of sizes and various configuration options, they make great Airbnb or glamping installations.
To take the business to the next level, Ian and Mick came to us looking for our thoughts on next steps, with the goal to increase production and solidify their position in the marketplace. The handcraftsmanship that goes into their builds had to be reflected to improve their presence online, to reduce their reliance on trade shows and exhibitions, and increase online enquiries.
Consultation
The first stage was to evaluate all the existing marketing collateral, and talk through an ideal target demographic, while identifying the Black Sheep company persona. We talked through what was liked about the current branding, along with any current limitations or restrictions they faced. An outline brief was formed, and our creative team got together to discuss potential directions.
Creative
Branding sets an expectation when it comes to both quality and price point, so when marketing a high end product, particularly online, it is very important that the brand evokes the feeling of prestige. Equally, in the case of Black Sheep Shepherd Huts, the brand needed to have a playful charm. So that was the brief. Playful and friendly, but confident and prestigious.
Our initial concepts included various typographic styles with a selection of monograms, keeping to quite traditional and earthy colour palettes. Then we had one of those moments on pen and paper, where a concept just clicks. The silhouette of a shepherd hut drawn as a sheep’s head, within a playful sheep icon surrounding it. It was added to the varied selection, before being presented to the client for their considerations, but it always felt like this would be the chosen concept!
Development
Sure enough the Black Sheep team loved our favourite concept and we set about some fine tuning and tweaks to the colour palette. Using a classic royal blue, it felt at home at country fayre’s, while contrasting against some of the more obvious greens and browns. The typography is all upper case, with a slight curvature to the top line, which is mirrored in the line above.
Once it was approved it was back with us to create all final assets, including the social icon. We then generated some brand guidelines which confirmed all logotypes and usage, fonts, colours and supporting assets. Before heading into an all new website, which went into build for the following 10 weeks.
Since working on the branding we have launched a new website, which also then led into SEO and PPC, which we have been proudly partnering with them for ever since. Order books are booming and the production line is expanding after a recent workshop expansion. If you are thinking about investing in an Airbnb, you can’t go wrong with a Black Sheep Shepherd Hut, so take a look at their website and give them a call.
Ready to grow your business?
If you’re ready to take the next step, speak to a member of our team today and we’ll work with you to get started on the first steps.