Rooting for Staffordshire
Rooting for Staffordshire is a community-based guerrilla gardening movement all about respecting, loving and maximising the local environment. It seeks to plant community gardens in public spaces and increase biodiversity in smaller green spaces, for example, wild flowers in grass verges and sunflowers against fences.
Guerrilla gardening is traditionally anarchist, it is about taking power and fighting for what you believe in. Planting can be seen as a form of positive vandalism - an act of rebellion within the realm of a council led project.
‘Rooting for Staffordshire’ aims to build awareness, support, and longevity for this effort, creating a movement within the local community to re-connect the population with nature.
It provides people with the resources and inspiration to make their own impact on their surroundings – engaging people with nature, healthy food, and their local area to ultimately improve quality of life in Staffordshire.
The challenge was to create a visual identity for the Rooting for Staffordshire brand, aimed at people in Staffordshire who are passionate about where they live and the environment.
It needed to motivate and unite the people of Staffordshire to fight for greenery in an increasingly grey world.
Phase 1
We challenged three of our designers to concept initial visuals for phase one of Rooting for Staffordshire’s brand development…
Chosen Concept
Kieran evolved one of his original logos by incorporating a shovel into the design – creating a stronger connection to the brand concept of guerrilla gardening.
Branching off Rooting for Staffordshire is sub-brand, The Seedlings Project, that is the school outreach programme for primary school children. The logo design follows the style of the Rooting for Staffordshire brand, but incorporates friendlier iconography to make it more digestible for a younger audience.
To encourage children to get involved with the guerrilla gardening programme, Kieran created retro seed packets using the softer illustration style complete with a space for children to write their own name.
Alternative Concepts
Dan - Concept One
For Dan’s first concept he took inspiration from the propaganda posters of the WWII era and the positivity and enthusiasm these generated. This logo looks to the styling and colours of the 1940s to emphasise the rallying call.
Bold typography mirrors the fonts that were popular back in the day and highlights the strength behind the message. This provides a strong mark that can be utilised in many ways across various media, with the ‘for’ highlighted within ‘Staffordshire’ adding a sense of place.
Kieran
Kieran favoured a circular design to illustrate the gathering of the community in projects to make Staffordshire ‘greener’. The design takes inspiration from retro seed packaging and the visual language of protests to empower the gardeners of Staffordshire.
Lewis
Lewis’ logo centres around a location marker with a sprouting flower that illustrates the project’s aims of ‘planting in your location’. It’s western-style typeface is inspired by the rebellious aspect of guerrilla gardening, adding a rustic yet contemporary feel to the visual that is complemented by the earthy colours.
Dan – Concept Two
Dan’s second concept has been created in a hand-written style to emphasise the message behind the campaign – to get hands-on with creating a ‘greener’ Staffordshire. The written font has a personal touch to it, reflecting the art of note-taking when planning a green space, choosing plants and flowers, or naming a plant label.
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