Helping Rugby Borough Council communicate with its community.
The first project we worked on for Rugby Borough Council was the visual identity for their Net Zero scheme, a commitment to bringing the council's own CO2 emissions down to zero by 2030. That single brand project opened the door to a longer relationship. Five years in, we're still RBC's creative partner, picking up briefs across the council and the partner organisations it works alongside.
How we did it →
Who is RBC?
Rugby Borough Council is the principal local authority for the town of Rugby (widely known as the birthplace of the game) and the rural parishes around it. In its current form since 1974, the council serves a population of around 114,000 across the borough.
In plain terms: they're responsible for the everyday things that shape life in the area. Parks, leisure, planning, business support, town events, the local gallery and museum. Alongside all of that, they've committed to reaching net zero across the council's own operations by 2030, which is where our partnership with them started.
What we've done together
We've been RBC's creative partner for five years now. Not a supplier they brief once a quarter, but a team they can hand a brief to and trust to deliver, whether that's a new campaign for the council itself or work for one of the organisations under its umbrella.
Built a visual identity for Rugby's road to Net Zero.
The first live project. A full brand build for the Rugby Net Zero programme, designed to sit alongside the council's own identity while standing on its own as a recognisable, public-facing scheme.
Logo Marks
Logo variants created for all formats and mediums, in a modular system built for ease of use and versatility.
Colour Palette
A colour palette defined to work alongside the council's own brand, whilst holding its own as a distinct, recognisable identity.
Typography
Typeface selection and curation to reflect the personality of the brand for clarity and tone.
Brand Guidelines
Guidelines provided for ease of use internally on any new collateral created by the team.
1 Page Toolkit
A condensed one-page toolkit of the brand assets, designed for fast reference and consistent use across internal teams.
Designed strategy documents the public can actually engage with.
Council strategy documents often live and die by whether anyone reads them. We've helped RBC turn their economic strategy work into clear, visual documents that lay out plans for the borough and what those plans mean for the residents and businesses they affect.
Extended the partnership to Rugby Art Gallery & Museum.
The relationship with the council opened up work with the local gallery and museum too. Across exhibitions, community projects and advertising, we've supported the team with collateral in a range of formats and at a range of scales.
Exhibition Artwork
Exhibition signage and identity work that gives each show its own visual voice, whether that's a contemporary art display drawing on the gallery's renowned Rugby Collection (with works by Lowry, Rego, Spencer and Himid among others) or a local history and archaeology exhibit in the museum spaces.
Digital Support
Helping the community-led projects scale up, converting digital pieces into large-format deliverables for use in physical spaces.
Advertising Collateral
Posters, banners and large-format print, built to advertise upcoming exhibitions and activities at the museum.
Brought council plans to life in animation.
Animated videos that take big council initiatives and translate them into something residents can actually engage with. The kind of communication that gets people understanding what's planned and why, rather than scrolling past another wall of text.
"above and beyond with animations, the quality alone bolsters our key campaigns and has impressed internal staff and customers. I look forward to working again in the future"
Why the retainer works
This is what an outsourced in-house creative team looks like for a public sector client.
No procurement panel for every small request. No three-week wait for a proposal on a banner ad. No re-explaining the council's tone of voice to a new freelancer every time something comes up.
We know the brand. We know the audience. We know the difference between a comms piece for residents, a strategy document for businesses, and a museum exhibition for the cultural community. So when RBC needs something, whether it's a campaign asset, an exhibition identity or an animation explaining a new policy, we just make it. Fast, on-brand, and getting sharper with every project, because we've been on the journey alongside them for five years now.
For a council balancing multiple departments, partner organisations and community-facing communications, that's not a nice-to-have. It's how the work actually gets done.
Logo Design · Visual Identity Design · Posters · Banners · Exhibition Display Artwork · Animated Videos · Strategic Documents · Digital Conversion Support · Photography
Studio: Hive Creative
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A flexible creative team for Etex and its family of brands.
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Interested in working with us? Tell us a bit about what you're building and we'll be in touch.
hello@hivecreativemedia.co.uk