Positioning decision

The obvious move was to build the brand around large-format specialisation for professional clients. But we chose differently. In discussion with the client, the offering was broadened: a print shop for the whole community, serving walk-in customers alongside the design and engineering trade, and offering copying and laminating as well as large-format print.

That decision shaped everything going forward. A specialist trade brand can look technical and anonymous. A community brand has to belong somewhere, and this one had to belong to Ashby – visibly, in the identity itself. The brand also needed to sit comfortably alongside the practice's established look and my earlier identity work for The Old Cottage Hospital, the office development both businesses share.

Designing a landmark

I developed three logo concepts. Two took paper as their theme – one built from folded paper, the other playing on the familiar printing icon we all recognise from our screens. Both were competent marks, and neither said anything about Ashby, and the client was clear that the local connection mattered more than a generic nod to print.

The third concept combined the two things the brand needed to say in a single icon: a stylised Ashby Castle, the town's best-known landmark, merged with a roll of printer paper. Local identity and core service in one mark. This was the concept the client chose, with minimal changes through the approval process.

From the approved logo I built the full identity: a five-colour palette for use across different materials, logo layouts with and without the strapline, and a house typeface matched with a web equivalent so the brand reads the same on a business card and a browser. The launch package included artwork for print advertising, posters, business cards and promotional items.

The website was a deliberate exercise in restraint. A new print shop has four services, a short introduction and a phone number – so ashbyprintshop.co.uk is a single page site with a contact form that lets customers upload artwork directly. Nothing more was required.

One year on

Ashby Print Shop celebrated its first anniversary this year, and the customer mix validates the positioning decision we made at the start. Alongside the expected trade in presentation posters and plan printing for local businesses, the shop prints full-scale dress patterns for a local seamstress, party invitations, birthday posters and end-of-year projects for school and university students. The community brand found a community customer base – one a trade-only specialist identity would never have reached.

My client has returned throughout the year, and I've since added poster signage, branded pens and print advertising to the original launch package.

Lesley Moore, Director at David Granger Architectural Design, summed up the project this way: "We went to Keith with a blank canvas, asking him to create a logo, website and other branding ideas for our new business Ashby Print Shop. He provided us with a great presentation and a logo which we are delighted with. He was patient with us and quick to respond to all our queries. I have no doubt we will continue to liaise with Keith going forward."

Which they did.