Polhawn Fort

Romantic Branding for a Wedding Venue

Surely one of England’s most romantic wedding venues, this gigantic old Fort stands perched on the edge of the ocean with stunning views and the sound of the sea echoing below.

As you might expect, for many years the Fort itself and word of mouth had been effective marketing tools. This was supported by a collection of old fashioned leaflets, a very dated brand and a website which reflected accurately that it had been produced over a decade before, when any kind of web presence was considered a bonus.

A Complete Makeover

As competition increased and new possibilities opened up, so bookings fell away and Polhawn was no longer top of the list.

Logo Design was tasked with turning the tide and recommended a complete makeover including a rebrand. Initially this included a series of mood boards to start the ball rolling and gauge the client’s reaction to a number of different design treatments. These were fine tuned until a definite direction was agreed and we could begin work on the branding. This was considered in its widest sense and concentrated on creative application, tone of voice, selection of photos and even the quality of coffee and biscuits offered to potential customers.

The blue background with its dreamy multi layers and swirls was developed to carry the logo – the romantic lettering. The brand design was implemented on a beautiful sales pack which included a matching folder, brochure, skeleton sheet for prices and other information, envelopes, sealing wax and string; and these tasks ran concurrently with the stationery set and a new website.

Exceeding Expectations

The design objective of the new site was to communicate the utter romance of the setting and the unique qualities of the old Fort. This is achieved by buckets of design input: wisps of poetry, hints of romantic old postmarks, sun-bright images and infinite attention to detail. The other key factor in the rebrand was to communicate the concept that people will be hiring the whole place so that they are absolutely free to arrange their time, their catering and their guests absolutely as they wish. Finally, the wealth of information on the old site was rationalised and re-ordered to create a better user experience.

The Outcome

The new brand achieved results above and beyond expectations. Literally within one month the ratio between inspection visits and bookings improved dramatically and actual bookings began to break all previous records. In the past, potential customers were using a site visit to confirm their worst fears based on the information they had seen, whereas now the site visit is often just a confirmation of a positive decision already made…