Branding for a community of European booksellers

There is little support for booksellers and publishers in the face of low-cost competition, and an accelerated change in shopping habits. RISE Bookselling is a three-year EU-funded project to create a supportive community of booksellers and publishers across Europe. Helping bookshop owners share best practices, focus on sustainability, and build diversity.

Ultimately if bookshops are supported and nurtured stories and experiences can be shared and literacy across the continent increases.

Brand Challenge

I was approached to pitch to create a brand idea for RISE Bookselling. Through various conversations, we were able to create a ‘brand on a page’ to develop the why, how, and what of RISE Bookselling. Primarily the brand needed to feel friendly, approachable but professional. The brand also needed to be easy for the in-house team to implement and scale across various languages.

I began researching into latest book trends by visiting and engaging with my local bookshop. Booksellers are devoted to their trade and it occurred to me that the RISE brand should reflect some of the amazing book cover designs that they're surrounded by.

Visual Identity

Sound symbolism was first noted by German psychologist Wolfgang Köhler in 1929 as a map between speech sounds and the visual shape of an object, known as the Bouba and Kiki effect.

Diversity is a key focus of the brand and so utilising these shapes was a way to represent the over 200 languages spoken across the continent.

Developing a broad palette with a conversational yet office-like font gives the brand flexibility to appeal to a wide audience.

The brand is being promoted across a website, video, email, webinars, podcasts, social, and whitepapers.

With the first build of a website in Wordpress a resource hub is being developed to promote events with Mail Chimp emails and social posts through Canva. I designed and developed the website, providing the team with training on Wordpress and the site theme.

VISIT

Client:

RISE BOOKSELLING

Project Management:

EUROPEAN AND INTERNATIONAL BOOKSELLERS FEDERATION

Year:

2022

Designer:

PHILIP APPLETON