one of our recent major branding projects has been working with the boys’ brigade to update their image. the boys’ brigade was the world’s first uniformed youth organisation [little known and air-brushed out of history fact: founder of the scouts, baden powell was originally a boys' brigade leader] and operates across the world with half a million members worldwide.

when requested to look at redesigning the brigade’s logo we returned to their traditional badge of an anchor - symbolic of a sure and steadfast faith - which whilst still an important part of the organisation’s identity had somehow lost it’s shine. in fact it had been neglected for so long that a definitive version of this historic badge no longer existed with several variations being in common use.

we redrew the anchor and added a definitive typographic style for the ‘the boys’ brigade’ also establishing a definitive colour palette. there are two variations of the anchor/type positioning depending on size and intended use.

we were also asked to come up with a new strapline for the organisation. in the past these had often referenced the brigade’s history, the most recent being ‘first for boys’ which was developed in the 1970’s. we took the approach that the priority for any such strapline had to be that it was attractive, or at least, not embarrassing to current and potential members of the BB - we’re well aware of how youth organisations aren’t exactly the epitome of street cool right now. our responsibility was to them as much as to the brigade’s leaders. what’s been really rewarding about his job is how ‘the adventure begins here’ has been adopted, used, played with and obviously well liked across the BB.

in many aspects the BB has quite a devolved structure - decisions are made at ‘brigade council’ where the leaders of the local groups have opportunity to both speak and vote on the future of the organisation. likewise, websites and marketing material for groups and events are often created at local level so any logo had to be popular so it would be ‘owned’ by the brigade’s members - not that design should pander to popular opinion, but we believe it’s vital to understand who you’re designing for and respect them. it also had to be able to withstand the rigors of the pc age that puts design tools in the hands of everyone. i think one test of whether a logo like this is successful is how it works not just where it’s beautifully printed but in situations where the quality cannot be guaranteed - something we took into consideration. you can see franked mail from the BB below.