A new visual identity for Deveron Projects

In 2024, we commissioned designer Tom Joyes to create a new visual identity for Deveron Projects. Now, in 2026 as we finally share this work with you, Tom reflects on the process and outcome.

The process

In November 2024, I visited Deveron Projects during the 2024 AGM to begin research for a new visual identity. The workshop was very useful in understanding DP better, the community’s interests and feedback on the current design at the time. The theme of ‘accessibility’ came up again and again, both in a practical sense (readability, clarity) and tone of voice in design (everyday design, community voices, DIY), which led me to create a visual identity that is bold, punchy, clear and inspired by the visual language of market signage, protest graphics and DIY print. Everything that DP does has a collaborative community element to it, so it was important that the visual identity would be something that would shift, evolve and have collaborative elements, rather than a visual identity in a traditional sense, which can feel static or something which is simply ‘applied’ to an existing thing. To allow this to happen, it was important that we understood the visual language not only in terms of ‘style’, but by linking specific ‘means of production’ with how it looked – leading us to look at ‘Print’ as a source of inspiration.

Why print?

DP and the town of Huntly has historical connections with print, with several printers shops such as J.M. Grant on Bogie Street and the local newspaper, The Huntly Express, originally produced in town. We had discussed bringing ‘means of production’ in-house to Deveron Projects and producing print materials in a more sustainable way. This includes a number of the print assets that we have designed – including a folded A4 newsletter, A3 and A4 posters and A5 flyers – which are all templated and can be designed and produced in-house by the DP team. The templates are a guide to be followed to maintain a recognisable ‘look’ for the organisation, however they can be customised over time with different coloured paper, inks and hand-written adaptations, allowing them to shift and evolve with involvement from the team and community.

The logo

The new logo for Deveron Projects is a scan of a letterpress print created on a letterpress found in the basement of the Brander Building. The letterpress printer was repaired by community members Catherine and Brian Whiteman who led a session at Friday Lunch to show everyone how to use the press. The prints created, of the words ‘Deveron Projects’ became the logo- even though this wasn’t the intention at the time. It seemed very appropriate for me to sample this ‘readymade’ logo rather than create something new, as it felt like a piece of DP history, and that it came from the community. Another ‘means of production’, the letterpress is very much a DIY tool that connects with the ethos behind the visual identity.  Letterpress printing also has a connection with Scotland, home to historical type foundries that created fonts for lead type – such as Miller & Richard of Edinburgh (1809 – 1952), who designed the original grotesque font that inspired the contemporary digital typeface ‘Founders Grotesk’ by Klim Foundry, which we use as the bold identity font in our print materials and website.

Illustrations

The illustrations that are to be found in all the materials of the visual identity are sampled from the ‘Casey Rubber Stamps’ archive. Casey Rubber Stamps is a small, independent stamp shop running for over 35 years in New York, and has one of the biggest collections of rubber stamps in the world with over 15,000 unique designs. The act of ‘stamping’ a design is easy and can be done by just about anyone, so it felt appropriate to use these designs, which I sampled and digitised to update how they can be used by DP. The illustrations – which include produce, tools, animals, landscapes and characters – tell the story of what happens at DP and make the graphics more accessible and eye-catching.

A note from Deveron Projects

Our new visual identity is being rolled out slowly over print and digital platforms.

We want to say a huge thank you to everyone who has been involved in its development - the lunchtime focus groups, Annual General Review participants and Access Reviewers. And of course to Tom Joyes for working so collaboratively with us over a long period, and Kieran Startup for taking care of developing this new website.