Arup has been appointed by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) to lead the Stronger Towns Fund delivery programme, helping local authorities access the £3.6 billion Towns Fund to support the regeneration and economic growth plans for 100 towns across the country. The contract signed between the consortium and MHCLG is for an initial 12-month period and the project is valued at circa £8 million.

The design task was to create branding for the Towns Fund that would bring together all collateral, created by various authors. Templates would be a major aspect of this task, so the brand needed to be clean and easy to follow for non-designers, but still be aesthetically pleasing.

With no previous design guidelines, we were free to explore ideas. The logo needed to reflect the subject of the Fund without being too specific on building type, so an icon-based theme was agreed. Gotham was chosen as the type face for the logo to accompany the brand font, Arial. Arial was chosen as an accessible font with different weights, which would be available on all platforms. Having a selection of colour swatches that provided a range of tints meant that there would be many options for diagrams, which was essential.

Ongoing design support and advice has been essential to ensure that the templates are fit for purpose and the team are able to fully understand and implement the brand created to a high quality.