Design Culture give Fulham Palace a layered new look

Press release April 2019

Directors Steve Wilkins and Kristen Streten worked on the new identity, which has been designed to help the Palace attract a bigger and broader audience.

They have created a new identity system for Fulham Palace in west London which will relaunch in May following a two-year restoration with a new museum and restored historic rooms.

The new identity is designed to reflect the Palace’s mission to become one of Great Britain’s most loved and inspiring historic houses and gardens, engaging people of all ages with the stories of the Bishops of London and the site’s longer history.

The Palace’s new museum opens on 25 May, and is brand new. Combined with the newly restored historic rooms, doubling the space set aside to telling the story of the Palace. The restoration also brings life back to the Tudor courtyard, which has been meticulously repointed using traditional methods and materials. In the garden there is a new bed, comprising specimens which were originally grown at the Palace 300 years ago by keen plantsman Bishop Compton.

To accompany the new spaces, Fulham Palace commissioned a new brand, to give the Palace a clearer, stronger identity which reflects the Palace’s long history. The brand needed to be attractive to visitors and to reflect the professional work which takes place there.

Layers of history

Design Culture has created an identity which reflects the layered history of the Palace, taking inspiration from Victorian dioramas used in the museum, and stratigraphy (the layers of soil found in the archaeological excavations carried out in the Palace site). This is indicated in the use of coloured layers, which are shaded to show depth.

Titles are divided into three lines, adding impact and intrigue. The use of a core colour with reducing or increasing opacity is again used.

The new logo is simple and recognisable, with the addition of ‘House & Garden’ to make it clear what the visitor offer is. It will appear primarily in a deep purple, the core colour of the new brand a colour which draws on the site’s long ecclesiastic history as the home of the Bishops of London. This colour will appear in some form on all applications of the brand. Other colours in the palette are bright and rich pink, blue, teal and orange hues, inspired by the Tudor bricks and botanic garden the house sits in, indicating the vibrant history of the Palace.

Application

Website

A new website will be the first major piece of the new brand that Fulham Palace visitors will see. User experience has been at the centre of the design of the Palace’s new website, and was the result of a consultation with Fulham Palace stakeholders and staff. The focus of the design is on improving the visitor experience, making it simpler to navigate, with clear, clean pages using strong colours to highlight content, drawing the user around the site. It is mobile optimised as the majority of users are now accessing the site through mobiles or tablets.

Interpretation

The creation of a new museum and restoration of the historic rooms which open at the end of May means that the new brand is being applied throughout the Palace. Visitors will see layers of history being revealed through creative storytelling on information panels inside and outside the Palace.

Further applications

Signage has been developed in consultation with Design Culture, again with graphic layers adding depth and colour to directional signage which can so easily be missed.

The brand is also being applied to all print materials in the Palace, and online on social media accounts and the Palace’s monthly newsletters.