Edinburgh Innovation Hub
Black Pig was contacted by long-standing client CAM-SCI, who were involved in the development of a new innovation facility in Edinburgh. A partnership between East Lothian Council and Queen Margaret University, the Edinburgh Innovation Hub is a £40million lab and office facility designed for small businesses seeking specialist services and business networks close to the city centre. Black Pig’s brief was to develop a brand for the Hub and design and build a website which would be a key communications and sales tool, promoting the facility and Edinburgh more widely as the premier location for innovation and tech-led businesses.
We started by working up a selection of potential logo designs. It was important to develop a brand that reflected the values of EIH such as innovation and vision, but also conveyed a sense of place and would complement partners' branding. We focused on exploring logos which were visually impactful, contemporary, unfussy in their design and had flexibility for application to the website and across other marketing collateral. Our preferred designs were presented to the EIH team and after feedback and some further development a final brand identity was agreed. The chosen design features an eye-catching treatment of the letters EIH, with the angled foot of the H mirroring the shape of the Hub building. The height of the lettering conveys a sense of stature and the robust, architectural style of the logo is softened by the use of an attractive sans serif font. The strong blue colour palette is intrinsically Scottish and complements the partner branding of QMU and ELC. The brand mark (the EIH abbreviation) can be used with or without the supporting text.
With the branding established our creative team began work on the website design. Some key aspects of the brief for the website were that it must be easy to navigate, use straightforward language and should not be over-designed. Taking this into account we created a concept which was uncluttered, clean and contemporary. Core information is quickly accessed without the need to navigate multiple layers of menu. Further development of the website is planned once the Hub has launched and tenants are in place.
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