Work

Chalkdene Developments

Chalkdene Developments is a public-private, joint venture partnership which builds high quality, sustainable homes on surplus and under-utilised land across Hertfordshire.

Chalkdene initially came to Black Pig with a brief to create a brand name, brand identity, website and marketing materials for their new development of family homes in Welwyn Garden City.

We began by carrying out background research about the town and the vicinity of the development itself to inspire names which would have a link to the location and sound like an appealing place to live. We brainstormed our initial ideas down to a shortlist of five options and conducted further research to ensure that there were no similarly named streets nearby and also that a suitable domain name for the development's website would be available.

We felt our client would be better able to select a name if they could see how it worked visually and so we worked up our proposed names into brand identities for the development. From this creative work the Chalkdene team were able to choose the name Centennial Gate, which we had proposed because Welwyn Garden City was celebrating its 100th anniversary that year. Working with the client’s feedback on the logo design we then developed this into the final identity and colour scheme for the brand. We then designed a sales brochure for the development, including drawing floor-plans and writing copy, and produced artwork for the exterior signage and hoardings. We also designed a comprehensive home user guide which was provided to new buyers in a high end presentation folder.

Having created a name and brand identity for their first development, Black Pig were asked by the Chalkdene team to work with them again on their second project in Stevenage, which was a much larger development with three times as many homes planned. 

One of the notable features of the development site was an old triangulation or 'trig' pillar. These concrete markers were used by Ordnance Survey when they were mapping Great Britain in the 1930's. Chalkdene were keen to acknowledge this link to the area's heritage in the name of the development and had proposed Trig Point as a potential name. The Black Pig design team visualised logos for this, and a selection of other possible names, showing how the trig pillar could be incorporated into the brand identity. The logo which was ultimately selected uses both the trig pillar and the brow of a hill, to represent the site's elevated position, in its iconography. We chose a deep green as the primary colour palette for the brand as it reflected the connection to the natural environment and also complemented the rich purple used for the Centennial Gate branding. 

One of the major aspects of our work with Chalkdene was the creation of a website for each development, using a universal design which could be replicated for each site with its own branding applied. The site we designed featured comprehensive information about the individual home types, the development itself and the attractions of the local area. Page layout and structure were key to the design, ensuring that the large amount of content was accessible to users in an intuitive way. We utilised a WordPress content management system which allows the websites to be easily updated to show which homes are available, reserved or sold. Users can also register their interest in a particular plot and download the development brochure. 

Our ongoing work with Chalkdene has included running a pay per click advertising campaign for each development as it goes live. We have recently launched the website for their latest residential development, Carriage Quarter, in London Colney and are currently working on the branding and marketing for a new project in Cheshunt.

Click here to view the website