Sumo

Shetland Museum and Archives

Branding

Our branding process is designed specifically for cultural organisations which are trying to engage with and grow their audiences.

Our unique process helps museums, galleries, festivals and arts venues to define their unique voice or personality, what they can be to audiences, and why they should care about it.

We believe that a strong, professional, accessible brand helps attract visitors, funding and prestigious collections.

Key services

Research, strategy & planning
Brand Identity
Design for print
Brand guidelines

Challenge

The Shetland Museum and Archives is an ambitious £11.6m cultural venue in Lerwick which houses over 3,000 artefacts central to the Islands’ history. The venue is the natural starting point for anyone who wants to know more about Shetland’s heritage and culture.

How do you create a brand identity that links the past, present and future? Something that signifies, not merely identifies, and helps to express the unique heritage of one of Britain’s most beautiful and distinctive areas.
Idea

We believed a venue that reflected such a highly distinctive and cohesive community demanded a proposition that had its roots firmly in Shetland. Our big idea was all about iconic Shetland, the logo reflects the shape of the iron age brochs found on the islands, the shape of the sail on the traditional Fifies fishing boat and the shape of the iconic timber clad Boat Hall on the new museum.

It would have been folly to create something that was in any sense contrived or falsely imposed. Our solution is simple, powerful and, above all, totally relevant to Shetland.
Response

Following its opening in June 2007, local and national interest was intense. In fact, first year visitor targets were met in only three months.

Sumo have continued to work with Shetland Amenity Trust to extend the brand beyond the museum through a series of over forty trails which guide visitors around the islands through the themes of geography, culture and nature.

“All the way through the project we felt that this was not simply another job to Sumo — they showed a genuine enthusiasm and a firm commitment to our ideas. Our confidence that the physical distance between Shetland and Newcastle would cause no problems was well placed, and indeed this had no relevance or effect on the smooth running on the project. We are simply delighted.”

John MacKenzie
Project Manager for the Shetland Museum and Archives

Shetland Museum and Archives

Branding

Key services

Challenge

Idea

Response

Related work