Creating a Visual Identity for a Destination-Led Business

Design and create a 'Destination Identity' for a new business

Wild North Logo

If you need graphics or design work, drop me a line. No hard sell, just a chat to see if we fit.

Phone: 07534 692684 or email at simon@nomad-graphics.com

Designing a Brand from Nothing: The Birth of Wild North

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When Matt Bishop and Reece Gilkes first called me, there was no brief.

No logo.
No colour palette.
No half-baked Pinterest board of “things we like”.

Just an idea.

And sometimes, that’s the hardest—and most exciting—place to start.

I’ve designed logos and brand identities for years. Some are evolutions of existing businesses. Some are rebrands. Most arrive with something to push against.

This one didn’t.

Below is the finished logo in it's most basic single colour and reverse format.

The finished design as a single colour brand marks.

What Matt and Reece had was intent.

They’re young entrepreneurs, but not new to big ideas.

You might know them better as the 'Sidecar Guys', the pair who rode a motorcycle and sidecar around the world. Or you might know them as the founders and owners of 'The Armchair Adventure Festival'. They understand story, grit, community, and what it takes to build something meaningful from scratch.

This time, the journey wasn’t global—it was local.

They wanted to create an umbrella company in the north of the UK. A 'destination brand' that would bring together cafés, restaurants, and experiences under one cohesive identity. A place you don’t just visit—but feel part of.

No pressure then...!

The First Challenge: Naming the Thing

Before I could design anything, we had to answer the most fundamental question:

What is this brand called?

Naming is design. It sets the tone for everything that follows. Get it wrong and you spend years fighting it.

We talked a lot—about landscape, weather, attitude, people, and place. About the rawness of the north. About independence. About not polishing the edges too much.

We wanted something:

Broad enough to house multiple businesses
Strong enough to stand alone
Honest, not trendy
Rooted in place, not gimmick

Eventually, the name surfaced—not forced, not overworked.

Wild North.

It felt right immediately.

Not wild as in reckless.

Wild as in untamed, real, unapologetic.

The north doesn’t try to impress you. It doesn’t need to. And neither should the brand.

Designing Without a Safety Net

With no existing identity, every decision mattered.

There was nothing to “match” or “stay consistent with.” That’s freedom—but it’s also responsibility.

The brand had to work across:

Food and drink
Physical spaces
Experiences
Print, signage, clothing, digital

And crucially, it had to feel authentic whether you were:

Drinking coffee on a rainy morning
Sitting down for a meal
Booking an experience
Or just discovering Wild North for the first time

Here's a look at a few of the design concepts that I came up with but ultimately didn't feel were 100% right for what we were looking for.

The logo at the bottom I felt had potential and I explored font types and colour variations of this. Here's how it looked with a little more polish.

Ultimately both Matt, Reece and I felt it was close, but not 'spot on'. So I went back to the drawing board literally.

I approached the design like you’d approach the landscape itself—layered, textured, and honest.

No shiny nonsense.
No over-designed cleverness.
Just strong foundations.
Identity Before Aesthetics

One thing I’m ruthless about as a designer:

If the thinking isn’t solid, the visuals don’t matter.

So before sketching logos, we locked down the identity:

Wild North is a host, not the star
It supports and amplifies the businesses beneath it
It values craft, community, and place
It’s confident but never loud

That clarity made the design process cleaner. Hard decisions became easier. The brand began to design itself.

With a number of designs already evaluated and rejected, I doubled-down and looked again at the 'identity map' I'd agreed with Matt and Reece. Wild North is a host not the the star, confident but never loud, supports the businesses underneath it. These phrases and sentiment all spoke of something utterly dependable, secure, timeless, solid and tying these feelings with a 'want' to somehow also create a visual that connected with the wild and the free, the idea of forests, landscape and mountains began to form in my head. In my head I felt that mountains and landscapes were base of where many of us explore play and freedom.

The question was how to convey these visual ideas into a clear design, that wouldn't look overly complicated and that would still be useable at any size and across all mediums.

Creating a circular design gave me clear boundaries to work with and would keep my 'need' to design in check. With more sketches worked out and rejected a simplified geometric style began to form, one that would allow me to convey the timeless dependability of mountains and forest while staying simple and clear. Finally, we had a brand and style that we all felt worked.

The circular brand chosen it was time to look more closely at colour options that would, in turn, filter down through every aspect of the business from building decorations, to merch design to lighting, web design and stationary...

Why This Project Mattered

I don’t take on every job. And I don’t write about all of them.

This one mattered because it wasn’t about decoration—it was about creation.

Helping shape a business from nothing is rare. Helping name it, define it, and give it a visual voice is even rarer.

Matt and Reece trusted me not just to “make it look good,” but to help them build something that will last. Something flexible enough to grow, but grounded enough to stay true.

That trust is everything.