The National Forest was England’s first new forest in 1000 years. Since 1991, 9 million+ trees have been planted across 200 square miles of the Midlands. It is one of the biggest and boldest environmental projects in Europe.
We’ve been working with the Forest over the last few years, evolving the brand as the Forest matures. As part of their 25 Year Vision launch, we helped the team shift the brand from the perception of a regenerative tree-planting programme to a more connected, holistic proposition - society, the environment and the economy growing the future, together.
In 2020 we were asked to lead a brand review with over 30 one-to-one stakeholder interviews, workshops and surveys. This gave us the insight to further shift the proposition to focus more on the Forest community working together - like co-dependent trees in a Forest - to grow a viable future in the face of climate change.
Since then, we’ve been working closely with the team to develop this; focussing on and building confidence in the amazing work of the Forest as an example to others.
We wanted to keep the overall brand identity simple, so audiences look through the identity directly to the work of the Forest. We built the visual identity around the original 1990s logo mark, using circles and lines as the basis for layouts and a full icon set.
We encapsulated the brand framework and the identity into a clear, concise brand toolkit.
We continue to work with the National Forest today on brand strategy, copywriting and tone of voice, rollout and implementation, brand collateral, reports and publications, employee brand/internal comms, signage...
“You have helped enormously to steer us through the complexities of our brand. The biggest difference was your ability to use clear tools, language and approach to bring everyone with us, across the staff team and board. For the National Forest, this has given real momentum to our expression of brand which can now drive our marketing, income generation and strategic development.”
John Everitt | Chief Executive | The National Forest Company
