Since we began working with the Institute of Masters of Wine in 2015, we’ve been tasked with strengthening the brand across a diverse range of platforms.
First, the core brand: wine has its own complex and well-established visual language, implicitly understood by experts in the field. We needed to become fluent in that language to help the Institute develop an impressive and authoritative brand identity as a high-end educational organisation.
The brand identity had to be flexible enough to make an impact across three key areas: the Master of Wine Symposium, held in a different international city every four years; the company’s prospectus; and its detailed student guides.
We had to tread a fine line with the Institute of Masters of Wine, showcasing the brand consistently across all touch-points as a prestige education provider — but without alienating prospective students and supporters by appearing too elite.
We adopted the organisation’s existing visual identity, but transformed the brand delivery: we developed a new tone of voice, updated image-use guidelines and messaging, and created a raft of internal and external comms.
The Master of Wine Symposium is a huge job: each symposium requires its own identity, inspired by the global wine region in which it’s held. We work with the Institute to create the whole branding experience: everything from t-shirts, flyers and banners to visitor guides and interior displays.
Finally, the IMW’s website design: our primary role was to make it more accessible, capturing the Understood and Loved aspects of our Connect in Full methodology. The site was too complicated, and too packed with information to have a real impact. We streamlined the build and content, improving the user experience and highlighting the things that really mattered to prospective students and wine aficionados. It’s now a warm, welcoming and informative site that’s easy to find and navigate.
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Straight Forward Design
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London W1W 6PH
