Danielle brings a fresh look to Sharpe’s Pottery Museum!

Danielle Orme, a Foundation Degree in Contemporary Creative Practice student at Burton and South Derbyshire College (@BSDCofficial), has recently worked on a live brief involving the refresh of Sharpe’s Pottery Museum’s visual identity.

As part of the refresh, Danielle has chosen a new colour palette which provides an earthy and natural tone, whilst still relating to the colour associations of pottery and clay with the brick red and sandy brown colours. She has kept the font and kiln icon of the logo but added a rectangle of colour to give it a more contemporary feel, while still being recognisable to existing customers.

The refresh will be rolled out across all areas of the museum, including posters, improved signage, social media and branded gifts. The new look and feel has also been applied across the website, as well as some additional layout and navigational improvements to enhance the customer experience when using the website.

Danielle, who lives in Swadlincote, decided to pitch for the project after being presented with the brief as part of her Contemporary Creative Practice course, specialising in graphic design. She said: “I live in Swadlincote and it feels like an amazing achievement to have my brand refresh selected. It’s rewarding to see all the hard work that I put into the brand refresh come to life and being used for a local client. The fact that I will get to see my artwork every time I walk through the town that I live in will feel weird at first, but great at the same time because I have helped to support the growth of a local museum.” 

During the project, Danielle worked remotely alongside web designer, Sarah de Roeck from Nova Design & Marketing to provide feedback as her ideas were embedded across the website. Sarah commented: “Danielle’s refresh of the established Sharpe’s brand is brilliant! Retaining the existing logo style but creating a new colour palette brings the website up to date and will appeal to a wider audience. It has been a pleasure working with a talented young student – even though remotely – and bringing her ideas to life.”

The Foundation Degree in Contemporary Creative Practice course is designed to relate directly to the creative industry and enables students to broaden and enhance their critical understanding of their chosen specialism. The course is focused on live, client-led projects and practical work that helps students gain the skills and experience they will need to work in the creative industry.

Speaking about the project, Danielle said: “Taking part in this project has given me the opportunity to learn more about the history of my local area. It has helped me to gain experience in working and communicating with a client, and how to work with design requirements to meet the client’s needs. I’ve now got experience of effectively applying visuals across an entire brand and have gained a great live brief experience that I can showcase in my portfolio.”

Maria Picken, Chair of Sharpe’s Pottery Heritage and Arts Trust commented: “It’s great to get a young perspective on the refresh of Sharpe’s Pottery Museum. Danielle is very interested in her local heritage and has communicated that interest in a talented and creative way that will attract a new audience to Sharpe’s. Feedback so far has been overwhelmingly positive, and it’s obvious that Danielle has a bright future ahead of her.”