Guild of St. Geroge rebrand
Branding
Student project
2026
OVERVIEW
This project was set to design for a magazine focused on raising awareness of social issues through infographic-led design and the clear communication of quantitative data. As a group we were tasked with designing a double-page spread infographic, supported by a series of animated assets for social media promotion. Within this brief, our group chose to explore the issue of loneliness and social isolation, using data, visual storytelling, and motion to translate complex statistics into an emotionally engaging narrative for a wide audience.
Challenge
Despite having a strong history and a unique set of principles, the Guild of St. George's current identity fails to effectively communicate its significance to audiences today. Terms like "Guild" and "Companion" confused those who were not familiar with the organisation, and the name, terminology, and visual identity were frequently seen as outdated. The current logo has important historical significance but needed a lot of explanation to be comprehended.
The challenge was to develop a brand identity that honoured the charity's past while presenting it as a contemporary, innovative organisation.
Solution
In order to overcome these challenges, we created a new brand identity that reinvented the Guild of St. George as a modern community who share common values – to inspire, care, educate, and connect. The organisation's key themes were communicated through a simpler visual identity that included subtle references to its history.
In addition to the new brand, the website was redesigned to better communicate the Guild's vision, mission, and purpose to new audiences. The new structure focused on communicating why the organisation exists, what it does, and how people can get involved. A collection of social media templates was also designed in order to establish a more unified and engaging digital presence.
RESEARCH
To find out more about the charity we conducted a short survey for current companions to better understand how the brand is perceived internally.
It was also helpful to outline the main comparators of the organisation – The William Morris Society, The Art Workers' Guild, and the Hugo Burge Foundation. These organisations operate in overlapping but distinct area of the arts and heritage sector, where each one has its own focus and audience. This is it on simple grid where the Guild of St. George sits in the traditional and community led sector. After the rebrand the aim was to move the charity from traditional and make the brand more balanced between arts and community based whilst giving it a contemporary rebrand.
Before getting into any design we created mind maps jotting down ideas onto a page based off everything we already know.
DESIGN
After rounds of sketching we narrowed down to three main directions, the dragon, nature, or a more contemporary route.
Most ideations explore the sword from the current logo which symbolises the courage of St George. But to better reflect the Guild today, we wanted to incorporate the nib of a pen, representing craft and learning. This combination keeps the historical reference while introducing a clearer connection to the Guild’s work.
All the assets put together to create our final logo, in both colour and reversed out. With the added strapline to immediately convey the values of the guild. The three c's CULTURE CRAFT AND COMMUNITY.
This is how we apply the brand across the website. This would be the new homescreen with our three c's tagline clearly showing the purpose of guild. We can also see Ruskin's main quote "No wealth but life" with a brief explanation. Scrolling down the vision and mission of the guild are clearly stated for new members, with a call to action section for donations as it is a charity, with a section on upcoming events the guild offers, and finally ending the homescreen with the footer highlighting guild partners.
We wanted to make it clear for users who want to become companions, so we provided an obvious button with our active gold colour. Taking them to the joining page, which includes further information on why to join and the easy steps to join, while also providing quotes from current guild members to show their experiences and encourage new members to join.
Moving on to social media we incorporated the branded assets used on the website to create consistency across all outputs including the g logomark as the profile picture and our pattern for highlights.
Physical outputs were also created like tote bags, using the guild quotes in carilliantine, this provide a set which could be sold in the gift shop outside the ruskin collection with the logomark on the back.
More physicals include the letter head and the business card. And of course to continue the set we have created matching notebooks.
