Case Studies
Combining heritage and industry prestige for a unified, leading brand.
Gilcrest is a renowned manufacturer of panels based in Bristol, specialising in cleanrooms. With roots dating back to 1946 and a global market from over 28 countries, Gilcrest has long been a leader in the industry, pioneering materials and solutions to fit all manner of client requirements. It was its flagship brand Puracore, however, that was often recognised, owing to the success of the FM-Approved Puracore aluminium honeycomb panel.
For its next stage of evolution, Gilcrest was keen to update its look, unite its sub-brands (including Puracore, cleanroom specialist panels; Puraweld, for welding solutions; Puracoustic, soundproofing and acoustic panels; and the new Customised by Gilcrest), and showcase the geography and scale of its customers. Tasked with realigning and unifying the brands, Squarebird set to work enhancing Gilcrest’s brand recognition.
A brand with legacy.
Alongside website design, Gilcrest felt it was time for a new look – something to differentiate it from its sister company of the past, and bring it into the 21st century. Following a branding discovery session, and tone of voice workshop, the future look and sound of Gilcrest took shape. A key decision was to remove ‘Manufacturing’ from the brand name, shortening the logo and emphasising their multiple faceted offering beyond panel creation. One thing was certain though – the purple and circular elements, in some way, had to stay.
The new logo is a result of extensive concepting, exploring the relationship between sister- and sub-brands, the brand history, and the strategy driving future expansion. As a result, the new logo contains the best of the brand; the retro-style purple ‘G’ nods to the past, the triple layering of the ‘G’ represents the core panel products, and the updated font better aligns with the sub-brands.
Following the successful Gilcrest branding project, we also took on the logo for a new brand: Customised by Gilcrest. As with the main Gilcrest brand brief, the goal was to create a logo that clearly fit within the Gilcrest umbrella.
Industry leading visuals.
Armed with updated branding and assured of their quality service offering, Gilcrest were ready to be bold, and gave us a clear mission: to stand out in the industry. With a bold colour palette, rounded shapes, and dynamic video content, the new website certainly made Gilcrest stand out amongst the crowd.
Aside from visuals, the website design process heavily centred around unifying the extensive content of both the existing Gilcrest and Puracore websites into one, without confusing user journeys. The key objectives of the new website were to provide a clear overview of Gilcrest’s offerings, inform on their applications across various sectors, and to make the relevant information easy to find for their target users. To achieve this, the design prioritised the logical presentation and organisation of products, featuring technical summaries, updated imagery, key statistics, and numerous call to action buttons prompting specification. Case studies, sector-specific pages, and a bespoke installers map supported validation and evidenced Gilcrest’s global reach.
The differentiation of Puracore presented a challenge: how can we unify all the brands under Gilcrest, while maintaining the visibility of the successful Puracore brand? The solution was simple yet effective – on Puracore product and case study pages, the logo features, and the page colours change to the brand blue. Though subtle, this change meant the website was clearly one brand, with Puracore placed as a subsidiary.
The result.
Gilcrest now have a unified, distinct brand that can carry them and their sub-brands into the future with success and identity.
Sarah Fowke |GilcrestFrom the moment we met the team from Squarebird to the completion of our project they were supportive, professional and great fun to work with. They provided good advice, fair challenges and drove our thinking. A particular thank you goes to Heather for her project management and Blake for the design work that he conducted for us. They came to me as a recommendation and I would certainly support recommending them to others.
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