Case Study
Pittards Leather
Heritage and craft: rediscovering a brand’s roots.
Pittards Leather
Founded in Yeovil in 1826, Pittards is a brand which is steeped in heritage, being the producer and developer of high quality leather-goods for over 200 years. Pittards and Quantock have worked together for over thirty years, developing the Pittards brand gradually over time and helping to bring new leather products to market.
Through innovation, compliance operation and community responsibility, Pittards has long been known for doing the right thing, whether this involves sustainability, supply chain traceability or ethical manufacturing. As the organisation approached its 200th anniversary, it was judged as appropriate to refresh the brand identity, to better communicate the brand as it is now, and facilitate it’s growth and ambitions for the future.
Rediscovering the brand’s heritage.
Thanks to the kind help of Debbie Burton, Director of Marketing at Pittards, Quantock was given access to old archival material dating from the early 1900’s all the way through to the 1980’s. We carefully scanned books, leaflets, flyers and a advertisements, and created digital reference mood-boards from which we used to spark the creative process.
Refining and reshaping.
The first port of call when approaching the refresh of the Pittards brand was to consider what improvements could be made to the script lettering on the existing brand mark.
We tightened up the shape of the lettering, ensuring a consistent diagonal slant on each glyph, and removed the tension in the ‘s’. We also created a better integration of the letter ‘P’ with ‘Pittards’, which has created a much more cohesive appearance. Overall, the lettering takes up less horizontal space, and is much more legible, enhancing its visibility at small sizes.
The natural evolution of the brand mark.
Whilst the Pittard’s crest had not been used on marketing material since the 1950’s, we decided that it was time to reimagine the mark and make it an integral component of a flexible, dynamic and adaptive brand identity for the organisation. Based upon sourced scans, we commissioned one of our professional illustrators to produce a more-detailed and refined rendition of the Pittards oak tree.
A brand new colour palette.
One key component of the initial brief was to consider whether a green-based colour palette should be considered, to reflect the strong sustainable credentials of the organisation. Through a process of refinement alongside the identity development, we produced a palette which is carefully considered to invoke connotations of Britishness, and a distinct sense of quality.
A typeface with quality.
As we developed the core brand identity, we had to consider which supporting typeface should be used in conjunction with the other brand assets. A solution was found in the form of Brother 1816, a typeface which mixes geometric shapes with humanistic strokes at the same time. Brother 1816’s humanistic nature makes it easy to read and legible in small sizes; meaning that it is perfect for branding, editorial and signage.
Rolling out the new brand.
The resulting objective was to apply the fundamental assets across a suite of practical applications. Whether this was signage, digital or apparel, we ensured that each application of the new identity was considered so as to achieve a balanced aesthetic.
A brand with longevity.
Throughout the creative process, we had to balance the introduction of change with the need to retain historical legacy. We were conscious that we had to be careful to not disturb the existing mark too much, as this would lead to potential customer alienation.
Luckily, the new identity has received incredibly positive feedback from both internal staff and customers alike.
This is personally one of my favourite client projects to have worked on, primarily due to how much care, consideration and craft we were able to invest in the project. At every stage of the creative process, we asked ourselves, is this the best we can do, does this work, and how can we improve it?
The end result is a brand identity which captures all of the history and heritage of the Pittards story, yet presents it in a way which is modern and forward thinking.
Alastair Poole, Marketing Manager
