Jerwood Gallery

Branding the home of ’art on sea‘ in Hastings

Brand strategy
Brand identity
Brand campaign
Brand assets
Brand guidelines
Brand activation
Brand guardianship
Signage and wayfinding
Editorial design
Art direction
Tone of voice

Client

The Jerwood Foundation is the UK charity championing creativity and talent in the arts. Since 1977, it has created an enduring legacy supporting outstanding artists, organisations and initiatives across the UK, helping them to thrive and make a lasting impact on the cultural world.

Brief

The Jerwood Gallery was commissioned and built by The Jerwood Foundation on the Stade – a working fishing beach in Hastings, on the South Coast of England. The gallery was created as both a home to the Jerwood Collection of modern and contemporary British art, as well as offering a vibrant and diverse temporary exhibition programme for the people of Hastings and the surrounding areas to enjoy. The Jerwood Foundation asked Rose to create the brand identity for the gallery, developing a distinctive and recognisable visual language across their marketing, signage, exhibitions, web, social and retail.

Solution

The plans to build the gallery in and amongst the historic fisherman’s huts on the beach were initially met with mixed reactions. Whilst many welcomed the gallery as a cultural centre for Hastings, the idea also faced resistance from locals who had seen a decline in the fishing industry and resented the idea of a modern gallery taking ‘their’ place on the historical Hastings beach. Consequently, Rose recommended the brand strategy and resulting identity needed to help create a bridge between the gallery and the local community. So Rose developed a contemporary brand identity for the Jerwood Gallery, using references from and around the fishing huts and beaches at Hastings, to inform a distinctive headline typeface and palette of colours, materials and textures. This empathetic approach helped to integrate the gallery into its environment and in doing so, enabled it to become an important hub for the local community. In 2019, the Jerwood Gallery was renamed, following a change in management, and Rose were asked again to help with the brand evolution, when the gallery became Hastings Contemporary.

Results

The Jerwood Gallery brand launched in 2012, and within its first full year of operating, welcomed over 65,000 visitors, enlisted almost 1,000 annual members, and over 1,500 school children took part in their programs.¹ The following year, the Jerwood Gallery won a RIBA National Award and a South East Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors Regeneration Award. The brand identity was also recognised in numerous international creative awards, including the prestigious Cannes Lions.

¹ Jerwood Annual Review

Jerwood Gallery

Branding the home of ’art on sea‘ in Hastings

Client

Brief

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