NVB’s new identity blends playful modular design with technical expertise to position the architectural firm as a leader in educational spaces.
Architectural practices are often defined by their designs, but for NVB – an award-winning firm based in Frome – the need to evolve beyond their buildings has led to a new visual identity and website created in collaboration with Supple Studio and Mud.
Specialising in education, community, and public spaces, NVB sought to reposition itself as a leading practice within the education sector. The result is a brand that combines playfulness with technical expertise, offering a distinct yet cohesive identity that speaks to NVB’s ethos of creativity and innovation in architecture.
The rebrand was initiated after a change in leadership at NVB, with the firm seeking to reshape its identity as a specialist in educational spaces. Supple Studio creative director Jamie Ellul explains: “We worked with NVB to create a new brand strategy and positioning around ‘A different school of thought’ – highlighting the practice’s broad experience creating everything from nurseries to universities.”
The positioning “A different school of thought” evolved naturally from this process, highlighting the firm’s USP and embracing its specialism in education. Although NVB does some community and public spaces, we knew that their ambition was to be the leader in educational and learning spaces, so our strategy and identity focused on this,” says the studio’s design director, Becks Skinner.
The standout feature of NVB’s new visual identity is its use of six modular shapes, representing the playful yet sophisticated approach NVB takes to create spaces that foster interaction and imagination. “NVB design spaces that inspire interaction and learning, and we knew we wanted to create something playful that evoked this idea,” explains Skinner. “At the start of the project, we read an article by one of the directors at NVB, where they cited a Roland Barthes quote about how wood is a good material for toys.
“This got us thinking about wooden shaped blocks and how these could be used to suggest building, learning, and human interaction – but executed in a more sophisticated and grown-up way.”
The challenge was to create a design language that reflected NVB’s technical expertise while still embracing the playful nature of its work. “One of the biggest challenges was to create a sense of play and a nod to education, without it feeling too naive or ‘primary school’,” Skinner says. “There is real experience and technical rigour to what NVB does, and so the way the shapes are used needed to support this.”
From these six core shapes and the NVB logo mark itself, a distinct modular typeface was also born. According to Skinner, the studio spent time “playing around with different shapes to strike the balance between the logo feeling simple but also ergonomic and human-like NVB spaces.” The resulting letters are used in bold applications to spell keywords on everything from presentation slides to the website.
Colour played a key role in setting NVB apart from other firms in the architectural sector, which often rely on black-and-white palettes. Skinner says: “In such a black-and-white sector, we knew we needed to use colour to stand out.
“We had defined NVB’s purpose as ‘To lead the way in creating inspiring places for everyone to learn and grow.’ For us, a bright, joyful yellow was the perfect colour to represent this.”
Mud, a digital agency based in the same studio space as Supple, worked closely on the website to ensure the new brand identity translated seamlessly into the digital experience. “The new brand was so energetic, it was clear we’d be able to have fun with the website,” says Mud founder and creative director Matt Powell. “The way the shapes interacted immediately got us thinking about classic sliding puzzles, which played through to some of the core graphical elements on the website.”
The sliding puzzle-inspired elements, a playful interactive feature, reflect NVB’s approach to education and learning, bringing some of the motion from the branding into the digital experience. Powell adds: “The fact that NVB operates in educational spaces made us think referencing a classic children’s toy would be a nice callback to the strategy.”
The new website takes a “less is more” approach to content since NVB were not only rebranding but also moving to a new domain name, consolidating two previous websites into one new one. “The old websites had become cluttered with content – they communicated volume but didn’t really showcase quality,” Powell explains. “We agreed with the client there would be more to gain from a ‘less is more’ approach, focusing on fewer, more in-depth case studies that reflected NVB’s aspirations.”
UX and content strategy played crucial roles in ensuring the website effectively conveyed NVB’s message. “UX is always fundamental to our website design approach,” Powell says. Everything on the website serves a purpose and reinforces a distinct part of the NVB brand personality.”
With its new website and visual identity, NVB is poised to continue leading the way in creating inspiring spaces for learning and growth.