Quartet Community Foundation approached us with a big question: How do we motivate more people to become involved with us and ensure that our services attract and are relevant to a new generation of fund holders? Their main focus was increasing sustainable, long-term funding.
Quartet is the only combined local philanthropic and grant-giving service provider in the West of England area, covering Bath & North East Somerset, Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire. Dedicated to investing in local voluntary sector organisations that tackle systemic unmet community needs, they recognise that no one problem exists in isolation, there are multiple issues that make up a network of needs. Quartet also supports people who want to do good for their local communities and aims to inspire a culture of philanthropy where everyone benefits from the impacts of long-term giving.
The organisation has changed significantly over the past 10 years. It has gone from being a small-ish charity to becoming an important regional player, distributing ever-growing funds. Aware that their profile remained relatively low among the community at large and that its brand identity had not kept pace with how they’d evolved, Quartet realised they needed outside help to overhaul their brand positioning and develop a new brand identity and website.
I’ve worked on a number of rebrands over the years but I can honestly say that, until now, I’ve never encountered one that works so well. It has opened my eyes to just how powerful a brand identity can be.
Suzanne Rolt, CEO, Quartet Community Foundation
In wanting to broaden their appeal and encourage ordinary people, and not just those with significant wealth, to participate in local philanthropy, they recognised the need to reach new audiences while continuing to appeal to their existing audiences (made up of donors, professional advisers, community groups and charities, and civic partners).
The name, ‘Quartet’ needed to be imbued with greater meaning and made more memorable, emphasising its position within the highly respected community foundation tradition.
The Co-Foundry joined forces with content marketing strategist, Sonja Nisson. Sonja carried out extensive stakeholder research, conducting more than 20 in-depth interviews with Quartet’s stakeholders and prospective fund holders in order to gain a deep understanding of their needs and issues. The resulting stakeholder research report, our brand audit and market research, as well as the findings of a brand perception survey that took in the views of Quartet staff and trustees, formed the basis of a team workshop designed to further challenge and refine our understanding of Quartet.
Sue then distilled the findings of the research phase into a brand strategy – defining Quartet’s mission, vision, purpose, values and personality. This also included clarifying Quartet’s various audience-focused value propositions, and the benefits of community foundation giving and how it differs from other forms of giving.
A co-creation session with Quartet followed and led to the preparation of a creative brief and execution of the following:
—Brand identity design
—Tone of voice
—Messaging
—Brand guidelines
—Website design, content & build
—Content strategy & support
It’s been a real pleasure to work with Sue and Sonja and the whole team feels the same way. They’ve listened closely from the start, got to understand the organisation from top to bottom, and guided us through the process with confidence and patience. They would be at the top of my list of recommendations for any future work.
Suzanne Rolt, CEO, Quartet Community Foundation
The brand strategy had defined Quartet’s brand essence as “Grounded giving”. This distillation of the mission, purpose and vision became the creative jumping-off point for our design team and the basis for the creative concepts that came to be developed.
The central theme of Quartet’s new brand identity revolves around flourishing and growing. The brand language employed to convey these ideas is one of simple shapes, derived from the logomark, symbolising the process of growth.
The logo motif (see above – Thrive) is a flower head made up of four Qs which represent the four regions that Quartet covers, denoting its dedication to meeting need in its local area.
The new creative design for Quartet is best described as ‘poetry in motion’: each element of the brand works closely with the next and the words and graphic devices combine to capture our approach and to illuminate our vision. There’s a real warmth to the brand and a contemporary edge. And it’s just clever, very, very clever, with the logo not only expressing the four regions Quartet works across, but transforming itself into a flower head that expresses the idea of thriving communities and of lives being given the chance to flourish.
Suzanne Rolt, CEO, Quartet Community Foundation
This bright and bold visual language is supported by a formal masthead style which communicates gravitas and reflects Quartet’s ‘Sage’ brand archetype emphasising their role as knowledge providers who guide donors to make the right decisions.
Brand resonance is further enhanced through a tone of voice crafted to connect with Quartet’s diverse audiences through positive yet emotive messaging that prompts curiosity and conveys wisdom in an open and friendly style.
As well as providing Quartet’s in-house marketing team with detailed brand guidelines to ensure consistent application of the new brand, we also developed bold and versatile templates that they could employ creatively across their social media, email marketing and presentations. We also delivered large format, signage, stationery and reports templates.
Finally, we built Quartet’s new website. From content planning and support, through to the design and build, we worked in partnership with Andy Webb and his team at Dreamabstract, creating a fresh, user-friendly website that reflects and reinforces the new brand identity.
