By Rosie McLelland, Senior Graphic Designer
Brand Architecture
A gallery space, restaurant, wine cellar, accommodation, library, wildflower meadow and woodland- with a thread of agricultural heritage running throughout. This is Papple. An extraordinary mix, but a brand that needed clarity.
Brand architecture is defined as the organisational structure of a company’s brands, products, and services, showing how they relate to and differentiate from one another. Our role was to make sense of this: defining the structure of Papple’s brands, products and experiences, and how they connect while standing apart. In short, we brought order to the richness and tied Papple together with a neat, considered bow (metaphorically speaking). No actual bows were involved- very off-brand.
Papple had a guiding principle of ‘Art in Agriculture’ which captures what they stand for, why it exists beyond profit, and the positive impact it aims to create for its audience and local area.
Papple also already came with a logo centred around the main building. Our sense was that this approach didn’t do justice to the mish mash of their offering (more on that later), but rather than rely on instinct alone, we set out to test and prove it.
The Farmhouse Brainstorm
After an immersion session that really got under the skin of Papple, we came together to unpack and brainstorm what we’d uncovered.
There were two named services (Eve’s Court and the Richard Demarco Gallery) but these are totally wrapped up and linked to everything that Papple is – not stand alone with their own personalities and visions. Eve’s Court is on the Papple estate, in the old court that once housed cattle and named after the one of the founders of the Soil Association who grew up around the estate. Walking from Eve’s Court through the curved walkway, there is the Richard Demarco Gallery with the old doocot. They are literally connected. And beyond these core offers, Papple also has a library, a display of agricultural implements, a range of beautifully appointed accommodation, a woodland area, and a wildflower meadow. This is where the mish mash idea starts to come in.
We realised most people would visit for one reason and discover another to stick around. Separating the services into sub brands with their own logo and identity was overcomplicating something that was itching to feel like it’s a world where you could spend the whole day. We could imagine ‘Let’s spend the day at Papple.’, but ‘Let’s spend the day going to Eve’s Court, then the Richard Demarco gallery, then the meadow and the library’ was unnatural and placed less importance on the location itself where there is so much history and warmth.
Recommendations
After a lot of discussion, some thinking and a whole pack of post it notes, we realised Papple was the glue that held everything together. On this basis, we made the following recommendations:
1: Drop the word ‘Steading’ from the logo
Papple is much more than buildings (however beautiful).
2: A hybrid brand architectural model:
One brand and one logo at the core. Each service or product should be named, but follow the same identity- no extra logos, but a simple, consistent typographic style (with historical relevance) for each service.
The Big Idea
We kept coming back to a big idea of a mish mash, there was no other way to describe the variety to be discovered or the idea of discovery. The mish mash is reflected in the impeccably restored steading buildings, where no two stones are the same. It also ties into the north star of ‘Art in Agriculture’, arguably two unexpected themes coming together.
Turning to their existing logo, it felt static and literal rather than artistic and emotional. Part of the charm of leaving Edinburgh to visit Papple is the journey, and the ‘wow’ moment of seeing it. Papple for the first time, nestled in the East Lothian countryside. Therefore, dropping the image of the steading would preserve this moment of discovery.
So, our third recommendation was:
3: A new logo
In the spirit of the big idea, we took cues from the estate and created a logo using characters we found whilst exploring. From stonemason carvings, agricultural equipment lettering and run rig maps, we quite literally mish mashed the word ‘Papple’ together. The result was a unique logo using the many letterforms of Papple that felt artistic, lived in, full of authenticity and meaning.
At the top of the menus, ‘Eve’s Court’ appears in the set style (Schorel Normal Book, a Scotch Roman typeface, set in uppercase with –50 tracking, for the type buffs) and is supported by the Papple logo. In the gallery, a condensed version of the typeface is used for text‑heavy labels, always paired with the Papple logo.
The Result
The result is a clear sense of identity and structure, with Papple firmly at the heart of everything. The hybrid brand architecture positions Papple as a distinctive farm‑led hospitality destination in East Lothian, with space to evolve and grow into whatever comes next. All anchored by a logo born from a simple idea, deeply rooted in the place itself, and carrying the feeling that it’s always belonged there. Because, in many ways, it has.
