Friday, January 22, 2010

New SDC corporate colours






The SDC has a new visual identity – an identity that is evolutionary, rather than revolutionary, enabling the Society to move forward into the 21st century, whilst honouring its incredible heritage. This last year has seen the SDC positioning itself for the future, with a new vision and a new business plan in place. As part of the business planning process, a Board decision was taken to rebrand. It was felt that a strong, consistent identity which reflects our new vision was fundamental to the delivery of our business plan.
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Rationale for the new brand colours
The colours in the new SDC logo reflect the organisational values and vision: purple is included to evoke quality, encouraging thoughts of the highest standards; this is mixed with the efficiency, reliability and trustworthiness of blue; and rounded off with warm bright yellow and turquoise to emphasise the young, forward thinking aspects of the new brand.
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The process involved
A rebranding process was initiated, with the input of colour psychology consultants, Colour Affects, in regards to the colour choice for the new logo, working with designer Harmeet Sembi to bring together ideas that would result in a coherent corporate brand. It was seen as important to maintain the colour mauve/purple within the new corporate colours, with perhaps a slightly stronger hue. The significance of purple to the SDC is linked to Sir William Henry Perkin’s discovery of mauveive, the first synthetic dye. It was Perkin's recognition of the potential of mauve as a dye, coupled with his iron determination to commercialise it, that sparked that launched the modern synthetic chemical industry.
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The full palette
Therefore, in honour of Perkin and the colour he invented, purple remains an ‘SDC colour’, with a specific selection of colours available within the full palette. Every colour in the brand palette has a positive relationship with every other colour (this principle is at the heart of the Colour Affects System of applied colour psychology) and these are outlined in the new SDC branding guidelines (PDF file) which is available on the downloads section of the SDC website. Requests for a print-resolution logo can be sent to marketing@sdc.org.uk.
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by CMcN