Ali Hanson, Naresh Ramchandani and Opening Line bring Patch’s ‘Work Near Home’ vision to life

Creative director and designer Ali Hanson, independent consultant Naresh Ramchandani, and verbal branding studio Opening Line have teamed up to create the identity for Patch. Since 2020, the organisation has sought to bring co-working and community-focused spaces to local high streets, making ‘Working Near Home’ easier than ever. The team have produced a rebrand that is authentic to the owners’ vision, communicating their mission with warmth, sensitivity and humanity. 

“‘A lighthouse for local life’ is the brand idea born from the strategy process lead by Ramchandan,” Hanson tells us, reflecting on the project. “This spoke to the idea that Patch is an organisation that exists to shine a light on local community culture and is a place for people to work, discover and meet on their local high street.” From this central tenet of the brand, the team then built a fitting visual and verbal identity.

First of all, alongside a familiar and inviting tone of voice, the team introduced a varied typographic language, giving Patch a selection of ‘frequencies’ to communicate with. At the front and centre of the brand is the primary signature typeface: Florian Karsten’s FK Screamer. “I felt it would work to have a logotype that has an almost architectural presence and gravitas, much like I imagined Patch spaces to have on high streets around the UK,” Hanson explains, “so a condensed lettering style felt like a natural choice.” Within the identity, the impactful lettering is combined with different building icons to symbolise each Patch location. 

The rest of the brand typefaces were chosen to not only harmonise but also so the Patch team could easily develop brand assets moving forward. Optimo’s classic sans serif Plain was chosen as the secondary font, with headlines in mind. “Patch required a third visual style to promote events so this is where we integrated Stanley as a third typeface within the system,” Hanson adds. 

When it came to the designated colour palette, the designer returned to the central lighthouse concept. “I was keen to ensure Patch had a signature colour palette to work with consistently that could further seed brand recognisability across multiple sites,” Hanson notes. “This signature palette was directly connected to the lighthouse brand idea, as we quite literally have a glowing warm yellow/peach combined with a darker blue to give Patch a signature palette with an illuminating quality.” 

Illustrations by Linn Fritz provide an added layer of joy and humanity to the brand, whilst expressing Patch’s vision of the future and what they intend to offer local communities. “Collectively we loved Linn’s style of illustration for its graphic and communicative qualities,” Hanson says, reflecting on the decision. “I feel Linn has the ability to create a breadth of characters that feel equally distinct and unified, so her work is a great fit for Patch and has brought tremendous value to the identity as a whole.” The team were also drawn to Fritz’s ‘one colour’ style, and therefore saw the potential for a versatile set of illustrations that could seamlessly blend in across all brand outputs. “As you engage more with the Patch brand,” the designer notes, “you will notice that Linn’s work plays a major role as a visual connector across out-of-home advertising through to social media posts and can even be found within areas of each Patch space.”

Ali Hanson

Opening Line

Patch