Proud to Present: a brand full of heart and personality for the Wildwood Trust

Wildwood are truly exceptional, and I am incredibly proud that they selected Ditto as the design partner for their rebrand. These guys are phenomenal - brimming with passion, expertise and an unshakable vision. It’s not often you encounter an organisation where the entire team are so united by a sense of purpose - and yet, when you visit Wildwood, you can feel how devoted everyone is to delivering their mission: to protect, conserve and rewild our native species. When I mention them to others, they might not recognise Wildwood by name - but if I follow it up with ‘the people who released the Bison into Canterbury’ - everyone instantly knows who I’m talking about. And yes, you read that right: Wildwood are part of some of the most ambitious and groundbreaking projects that the UK has ever seen. Super cool people doing super cool work. Here’s their story…

An extraordinary charity devoted to saving the UK’s most threatened wildlife, Wildwood Trust has grown from humble beginnings to become an internationally respected leader in conservation. Having opened their first park in Kent in 1999, and a second park in Devon in 2015, Wildwood attracts 200,000 plus visitors annually. The parks are home to more than 200 native animals, set in acres of beautiful ancient woodland. The devotion of the entire team in bringing their mission to life has inspired loyal support, with over 65,000 members.

Through conservation, breeding, education, research and our ground breaking rewilding programmes, their purpose is to give native species a future. Working with native species from bats and dormice to bison and bears, the team do incredible, vital work to preserve and celebrate our wildlife. Wildwood does more than provide animals with a protected home in our parks, but embarks upon ambitious landscape-scale projects, reintroducing missing species and recreating lost habitats for these animals to thrive within.

This was a really interesting project - not only due to the nature of their work, but due to the diversity of the audiences that the brand needs to appeal to. There was a frustration throughout the team that their incumbent brand was somewhat letting the side down amongst their peers, failing to reflect their kudos as a seriously expert team of conservationists. So while one challenge was to create a brand which would reflect their credibility, so too does it need to have a sense of fun. After all, their 65,000 annual visitors come to Wildwood’s parks for a really fun day out - and since they are responsible for 80% of the charity’s income, considering the perception we wanted to create within this group was crucial.

We responded with a brand which has plenty of scope to flex towards either audience. Whilst the core colour palette is refined, an accent colour palette brings life and energy; whilst the primary typography brings clarity and character, the accent typography is playful and energetic. We’ve considered the different audiences throughout every stage of the design process, and you can see how the brand can be employed differently to feel appropriate for its audience without undermining consistency or credibility within the brand.

Wildwood Communications

stationery, visitor information

Wildwood Hospitality

Menus, food packaging, visitor experience

Wildwood Clothing

Team uniforms

Wildwood Retail

Branded merchandise

The resulting brand is alive with colour, energy and purpose. Vivid colours and hand drawn illustrations bring personality to every piece, allowing the passion behind this incredible charity shine. I’m so excited to see this brand out in the wild!