Skew Studio launches first National Trust brand licensing style guide

London-based brand and design studio, Skew Studio, created the first official brand licensing style guides for the conservation charity, the National Trust, and its brand licensing collaborations.

The guides include one for children’s products, inspired by the flora, fauna, places and architecture the National Trust  cares for. These guides are used across a broad range of licensed product categories and retail partners, to ensure a consistent aesthetic and strong story is told. Whether tiles or durable garden tools, these collaborations aim to benefit the conservation charity in many ways, including reaching new audiences and generating important new income.

With new products and a wider number of partners and licensees, the National Trust can reach new audiences, securing further sources of revenue to continue their conservation work.

Adopting a multi-layered approach, which natural assets like pebbles, coastlines, foliage and outstanding architectural features, Skew Studio felt like it was working with the fabric that forms the country, explains Sara Bignardi, lead designer at Skew Studio.

“Seeing our work come alive across diverse products and packaging is satisfying, but most importantly it’s how our designs and ideas connect with the  National Trust brand in a cohesive and original way,” she says.

Oliver Dyer, MD of Skew Studio, says, “Good design should provoke a reaction, and make you feel, think or act.  Places cared for by the National Trust stimulate the same response, whether a stunning period interior or a pristine piece of coastline, so working with the charity to create something original together was such a rewarding project. Reaching new customers through our work, and blending centuries of heritage with a contemporary ethos is so satisfying.”

“From stunning coastal paths, woodlands and mountains to places like Chartwell and the mid-century masterpiece The Homewood; National Trust places are as varied and diverse as our nation. To create this project, we asked Skew to draw upon these places - the natural and the built, to create a cohesive collection of assets that are innovative, distinctive and vibrant,” adds Clare Brown, head of brand licensing and retailer development at National Trust.

According to Michaela Davies, brand licensing manager at National Trust, the style guide will be key for the charity to form further collaborations with new licensees, delivering new sources of income to support the work of the national Trust.