Design Week - 26 November 2009

Silver Worldwide brands Christian youth organisation The Rock

Cheltenham-based consultancy Silver Worldwide has created the brand for youth organisation The Rock, which is converting a church building in the town into a skate park and a recording studio.

The Rock will be established at St Peter’s Church in Cheltenham, which closed last year. It will aim to provide opportunities including extreme sports and life skills for young people.

Silver Worldwide was appointed following a credentials pitch around six months ago, according to consultancy chief executive Graham Dodridge.

The Cheltenham centre will be completed next year, says Dodridge, and The Rock founder Ben Lillie hopes to roll out the programme to other church buildings.
Dodridge says, ‘There are plenty of old churches around the country which are being turned into bars and pizza restaurants, and this organisation wants to use [these buildings] to help youngsters.’

Dodridge says an obvious challenge in the project was to create a brand which would attract youngsters into what is a Christian project, without appearing to hide the spiritual aspect of the organisation.

He says, ‘Lillie wanted us to look at the branding objectively. If you make it very churchy, you have a good chance of putting some people off. However, if you disguise the fact that it’s a Christian organisation and people go and find out, then they could feel duped.’

Dodridge adds that the consultancy wanted to avoid the ‘old school’ look and feel of a lot of Christian organisations, while keeping the religious elements.

He says, ‘We looked to surf and pop culture as an inspiration. The main logo includes a cross, but it also resembles an online button.’

The branding is also being rolled out across elements including a website, vehicle livery and clothing.