Solas Nua – ‘new light’ in Irish, is a leading multidisciplinary arts organization based in Washington D.C. that is dedicated exclusively to contemporary Irish arts. We were commissioned with developing a brand system and a website that reflected their experimental, playful and bold operations and programming. Solas Nua aims to challenge misconceptions and preconceived notions of Irish identity and provide a platform for artists to share Ireland’s changing story.
What we did:
- Brand Development
- Graphic Design
- Web Design
- Marketing Campaign Management
- Content Creation
- Web Design & Development
BRAND DEVELOPMENT — Solas Nua – ‘new light’ in Irish, is a leading multidisciplinary arts organization based in Wasington DC that is dedicated exclusively to contemporary Irish arts.In 2020 Solas Nua were undergoing changes on a structural level which spurred them on to evolve their brand to reflect these changes. The branding process involved a series of workshops in which every member of the board was involved in some capacity. This resulted in a truly collaborative brand that everyone could take ownership and be proud of. The result was an evolution to a more contemporary identity that stripped back the superfluous details and allowed Solas Nua to deliver their message in a clear and exciting voice.
THE LOGO — The Solas Nua logo represents the organisations alternative view on the cultural landscape. The skewed bowl of the ‘O’ is created by a ray of light cast down from above. The pink colour of the previous identity was kept as it was the most recognisable element of their brand which purposfully set them apart from the typical green in other Irish brands.
BRAND APPLICATION — The Solas Nua brand is characterised by a unique and compelling typographic expression. Key to this approach was a grid that allowed Solas Nua the flexibility to present their varied programme in a consistent manner across multiple channels. Origin Black was the chosen headline font as the backslant variant echoed the concept of the logo. The adaptable grid layout and font creates and unusual yet compelling brand that most importantly frames the organisations programme in a clear and informative way.
WEBSITE DESIGN & DEVELOPMENT — We designed and developed a website for Solas Nua to showcase the newly developed brand, reflect their ethos, and allow them to promote events through an intuitive and user-friendly events section. It was important for the Solas Nua team to be able to upload and update the events easily, and the listing page was designed so events could be effectively organised and filtered.
CMS & DOCUMENTATION — We used Drupal as the content management system for the Solas Nua website. Drupal is an open-source, scalable and flexible platform capable of handling very large amounts of content, which made it well-suited to hosting a high volume of event pages. We provided Drupal training and documentation to allow the Solas Nua team to control the website and easily create events and news pages, as needed.
