The Hive is a community arts charity, based in Shrewsbury and working across Shropshire and Telford. They run creative projects, primarily with children and young people in challenging circumstances, and a venue in central Shrewsbury hosting gigs, events, workshops and talks. Their vision is to transform lives through creativity. We spoke to them about their rebrand.
The challenge
The Hive is both a charity and a venue, which makes them unique but can also be a challenge to communicate. As they put it: funding is one challenge, but identity is the other, being understood. It has been hard for people to grasp that they are a charity and a venue, running projects with disadvantaged children and young people while also running a not-for-profit venue. Communicating this clearly through marketing and branding was an ongoing challenge, and the reason they started the rebrand.
A collaborative approach
We are a community organisation, they told us, and we needed as many people as possible to have input and ownership. Goodthing took the time to understand what The Hive is all about, speaking to many of their stakeholders, both in larger groups and smaller focus groups, and really understanding what they wanted to achieve.
We encouraged them to consider the emotions involved in engaging with The Hive. People spoke about the 'Hive hug', and about how it feels to walk in: a sense of community, welcome and belonging, and a sense of fun. Developing confidence was a major area for them, and through consultation we identified that they needed to project their voice and be bolder about their achievements.
The lesson
A key lesson, in their words: understanding our audience, and realising our branding can't be all things to all people. The Hive works with people of all ages, but primarily with children and young people, with music as a key tool, so the brand needed to represent this first while staying flexible enough not to isolate other users. We also learned the importance of a strong brand, which doesn't just sit within a logo. The brand needs to be conveyed within everything, and the right brand can evoke the sense of community and confidence they needed. People feel the love for the brand, which they had never done with any previous branding or logos.
