Building a rebel brand

Hi3 Network is a network of moving image industry specialists, researchers and businesses developing new products, services, experiences, and new research at its hubs in Canterbury, Folkestone, and Maidstone.

The challenge

As a new organisation, Hi3 Network required brand positioning to help define its purpose in the minds of its target audience, and a strong visual identity which would inspire its three core groups of stakeholders to join the programme: SME business owners, moving image specialists and academic researchers.

What we did

After winning a pitch process, we ran an online brand positioning workshop for key Hi3 Network stakeholders. Sharp Sharp research associate Jenefer Thoroughgood co-facilitated the workshop with valuable insights on developing the brand purpose, while Sharp Sharp Director Steve McInerny led discussions on the brand personality. This included a brand archetyping exercise, resulting in the bold decision from the team that the brand best suits the ‘rebel’ archetype.

The brand positioning was used to inform the creative brief for the design phase of the project. Three visual concepts were developed, each focussing on a slightly different aspect of the brand positioning. One route was inspired by Hi3 Network’s creative cross-pollination, the second represented creativity, collaboration and innovation with floating bubbles. In the third route, beams of light inspired by ‘light painting’ photography represent the dynamism and maverick nature of the brand, and spill out into the real world.

Rather than ask the project team for a decision at this point, we recommended and then developed a survey in order to obtain feedback from a broad spectrum of Hi3 Network’s stakeholders, including its customers. This was expertly carried out by Jenefer, and resulted in a number of insights which were used to fine tune the brand design. The survey results were used as the starting point for the project team to make its decision, and the third route was selected.

The chosen concept was developed into logos and an extensive suite of brand assets. The final part of the project was to apply these assets to easy-to-use social media, print and presentation templates, plus website and wall graphic concepts and a brand guidelines document.

The results

The branding launched alongside a string of events, and has been well received by the project team.

Here’s the generous testimonial in full from our main contact at Hi3 Network, Lead Community Manager Steve Molyneaux:

"We recently appointed Sharp Sharp to lead the brand creation for Hi3 Network, a new Research and Innovation business support network. The project is delivered by multiple partners and Sharp Sharp handled the requirements of each partner expertly, ensuring that the final design was one in which all stakeholders were consulted on. 

Steve and the wider team (used for the brand positioning exercise) were incredibly flexible throughout the contract meaning the brand creation project was able to move forward at the pace and timeframe that suited our team - and patient with us throughout each round of feedback! They went the extra mile to understand our clients and target audience as well as researching similar offers in our market space to help the creative juices flow and develop a unique brand for us.

The final hand over included an animated logo, core brand along with separate colour palettes for each of our locations as well as assets to use across social media channels and the project's website - all of which we put to immediate use. 

It was an absolute pleasure working with Sharp Sharp, and has resulted in a unique brand identity for Hi3 Network that we're loving putting into action."

We couldn’t have put it better ourselves!