Sparc

Sparc (formerly known as Artworks Valleys Kids) is a youth arts organisation based in the Rhondda valley. It is part of the wider Valleys Kids charity, and is about to celebrate its 20th year of operation. Their primary aim is to provide underpriviledged 6 — 24 year-olds with creative activities within the communities, including theatre, performance, music, writing, digital making and all manner of other things across 5 locations. After 20 years, they were finally looking to rebrand and step out from the shadow of Valleys Kids, but retain their links to the organisation.

Rhys Webber and I ran the branding workshops for the staff, volunteers, and youth groups to be involved from the start. By the end, the name was decided upon and work began on the concepts.

After a lot of experimentation, I knew I wanted something organic, rough, and never quite repeatable. Using a Posca pen with low ink, I began creating the shapes by sweeping quickly across the paper. The results had a raw energy to them, like the youths they deal with, and something the founder had wanted to include from the start.

I digitised the outcomes, then these concepts were presented to the staff and participants for feedback in further workshops and via online presentations. I tidied them up and set about making the final mark, as well as various permutations for use across promotional materials/stationery.

When it came to their website, they needed a solid bilingual web presence that showcased their myriad galleries from years past, showed their upcoming performances/events, and had information about their recurring activities (i.e.: weekly dance sessions etc.). Key areas of the site were established to proceed with the information architecture and user journey plans.

Once settled upon, I designed the wireframes and started fleshing out the UX, ensuring that vital information is clearly presented to users, upcoming performances and events were prominent, and that navigation was fluid — plenty of relevant cross-linking between pages so you always know how to get around.

In terms of visual design, I wanted to bring elements of the branding forward, creating dynamic masks for images (such as slides or event cards) that the staff could choose from when adding content, as well as keeping the rough, energetic style throughout. As part of the launch of the branding, Webber Design ran a workshop with the youths to create over a hundred versions of the two main brand elements (the actual mark and the "Asterisk" emblem) that would be randomly loaded on each page.