Challenge

Suffolk County Council has established a bold initiative, Creating the Greenest  County. Iain Dunnett is heading the project on behalf of the council, and supports Lady Clare Euston who is chair of Suffolk Strategic Partnership. Consultancy is provided by Hana Loftus, whose expertise is a valuable resource. The process is guided by a think tank of experts within the fields covered by the Greenest County initiative.

The council's aim is to lead through their own actions, and provide a resource for local businesses, communities and producers to help them achieve environmentally friendly behaviour.

 In the words of the council's executive summary: "A strong Suffolk brand - Creating the Greenest County - will both strengthen the position of these businesses and encourage other businesses to follow their lead which can only strengthen the Suffolk economy."

Spring was chosen following a six-way pitch, partially due to our experience and progress in this space with other clients, partially because we were undisguised in our enthusiasm! This project's importance cannot be underestimated and we are privileged to work on it.

Process

The project was awarded on the 27th April, giving us less than a month to create
and communicate the brand in time for the Suffolk Show, at which this brand was
launched.
We immediately distributed our brief to every one of our senior designers, who all worked over the weekend to develop a wide range of icons. Whilst our normal practice is to whittle ID proposals down to three or four for client presentations, in this case we bombarded the team with about fifty logo proposals, and over the course of a two hour meeting worked with them to select three. Following tweaks these were distributed to the panel, and a clear favourite emerged.

The next few days were spent working this ID within designs for handouts, the  website, displays and t-shirts. We designed all these items to carry clear messages and calls to action. Every item is to be produced as greenly as possible, so Spring's production team went into overdrive, with very tight deadlines and extremely high production targets. This has, without doubt, been an exhilarating project for the whole team.

Result

The icon is now used across a variety of organisations and communication channels. Suffolk has embraced the greenest county initiative and there are exciting new ideas and activities happening constantly. This vibrant project really proves that Suffolk has the capability to influence the UK.