Johnson Banks have recently completed their new identity project for the Swanswell Charitable Trust. Originally founded in 1968 as a small alcohol counselling agency, the Swanswell Charitable Trust has since grown into a much larger organisation. With growth had come brand confusion as well, with many initiatives taking on different names so it was time to revisit what they were about.

“When the trust approached us last year with their chosen, legacy name, we were a little unsure at first until we began to see that the “well” at the end of the word could be of use. Various typographic experiments followed, before the discovery that a piece of paper, crumpled at one end, could act as a suitable metaphor for someone’s life smoothing itself out.”— Johnson Banks Project Description

With several different degrees of ‘crumple’ the concept of this identity is fantastically innovative and covers a range of elements coherently within the new brand identity – for example, business cards come bound in little pad and are hand-crumpled individually. On a conceptual level, I love this design and the metaphor – I do wonder however, if having ‘Charitable Trust’ somewhere in the vicinity would have clarified its meaning to those who don’t take quite such an intellectual reading of it. I advise you take a look at the the Johnson Banks website for more examples for their Swanswell adverts and leaflets – here.

(Opinion: Jon Price – Designer)