A place that invites people to come together needs to ask the same of its branding. The Reynolda Historic District in Winston-Salem is a sprawling former country estate home to plethora of educational, cultural and community offerings, and just as many brand identities. With its centenary coming up, Reynolda needed a centennial brand – one that could seamlessly segue into a newly unified brand identity for the entire estate.
As Winston-Salem locals, Reynolda has always loomed large in our consciousness. Through an RFP process we were selected to develop the estate’s centennial design as well as the subsequent brand refresh for the Reynolda House Museum of American Art, widely considered the jewel of the estate. Our first priority was to create a centennial identity that would resonate with visitors of all ages, while also priming them for the forthcoming Reynolda House brand – and the estate-wide brand refresh that would follow.
Before we could begin work on an identity we needed a strategy. This meant hearing the voices of key constituents, employees, visitors and non-visitors. Through these conversations and deep research we learned that the estate’s branding was disjointed, and that there were many other elements and experiences of the estate being underserved by the current identity.
These insights helped us develop a strategy that would unify the different divisions of the estate under a single, inclusive brand identity. This identity had to align with the strategy while also speaking to the target audience in a way that was authentic to the voice and personality of Reynolda.
We tested the waters with our centennial identity, an Art Nouveau-inspired brand anchored in the estate’s history and designed to foster pride and belonging across diverse demographics. To gauge how the identity resonated, we launched a marketing campaign offering free lifetime membership to anyone willing to get a tattoo of the new identity. Members from their 20s – 50s took us up on the offer, validating our hypothesis and providing a green light for the subsequent brand expansion.
We knew that the key to the larger, estate-wide branding identity was understanding the visitor journey and developing wayfinding elements and touchpoints that would both direct and augment that experience. The resulting Reynolda umbrella brand extended the centennial identity, incorporating line drawings and typography redolent of the estate’s own architectural moments and rich history of cultural stewardship. A website, marketing materials and merch designs informed by archival documents anchored the identity in the estate’s past, while an estate-wide app called Reynolda Revealed connected visitors to stories and experiences relevant to the entire estate. Touching on Reynolda’s history, art galleries, gardens, sidewalk cafes and boutiques it encouraged cross-over experiences and explorations.
To ensure the new, estate-wide brand would be executed correctly, we established a series of brand standards that themselves were in line with the new brand. Workshopped with an internal team, these visual templates and layouts and storytelling elements not only provided guardrails for remaining on brand, but provided a flexible entry into the brand for staff creating marketing materials in future.
The new estate-wide identity dramatically simplified outreach, facilitating consistent messaging and experiences across all of Reynolda’s communications channels and no matter where a guest is on site.
----- // THE SHOP \\ -----
WHAT THE FUCK
WE'RE A PASSIONATE DESIGN TEAM LIVING LIFE TO THE FULLEST, HONORING THE CRAFT THAT WE LOVE AND GETTING OUR HANDS DIRTY AS OFTEN AS POSSIBLE. WE ARE AN AWARD-WINNING STUDIO CREATING UNCOMMON, EMOTIONALLY RELEVANT CONCEPTS AND DESIGNS. OUR WORK HAS LED TO CREATIVE COLLABORATIONS WITH PATRONS FROM SMALL START-UPS TO ESTABLISHED ORGANIZATIONS WITHIN ARTS AND CULTURE, MUSIC, FOOD, BEVERAGE, FASHION, CONSULTING, PUBLISHING AND ADVERTISING.
re
re