HarmonicaUK Rebrand

“Identity is the cause; brand is the effect, and the strength of the former influences the strength of the latter” Larry Ackerman History books will mark 2020 as the year of global lockdown. The spectre of the COVID-19 pandemic saw the UK’s population confined to quarters, masked and socially distanced. For HarmonicaUK, the year saw the newly elected Committee meeting on Zoom, forging plans for the future and reflecting on the organisation’s purpose and appeal. Housekeeping projects were launched, including the unification of its two websites, automated membership and a restyling of REBRAND 2021 Harmonica World magazine. As further projects emerged however, it became more and more apparent that HarmonicaUK was lacking a coherent brand. Its visual identity had fragmented since the days of the National Harmonica League (NHL), and its values warranted review. As Vice-Chair, Richard Taylor volunteered to develop a new brand for HarmonicaUK and drafted a phased plan that would begin with a thorough appraisal of the organisation’s core values and behaviours. Drawing from inherited documentation and HarmonicaUK’s constitution, and with extensive Committee consultation, the spirit of HarmonicaUK was identified as: · Serving the public and involving its membership · Documenting its past and shaping its future · Being inclusive and embracing diversity · Being fun, inspiring and evolving Added to this, HarmonicaUK’s behaviours were identified as: · Being welcoming and helping others · Being professional and showing integrity · Forging relationships · Being respectful and earning respect · Valuing innovation Subsequent phases of the plan provided a pathway to distil these values and behaviours into a professionally designed brand pack and logo. The outcome would be uniformly applied to all the charity’s activities, from its website and magazine, to routine communications, festival signage, trophies, and even merchandise. Just one problem remained; who was the right person to conceptualise the plans and convert them into graphic form. Professional branding companies were approached and trusted contacts in the design world were emailed when, unexpectedly, an in-house solution materialised in the form of Steve Pardue of Differentia Ltd.

Steve’s professional work involves working across a wide sector from public art, interpretation for public spaces and nature reserves to branding and design. He agreed to ponder HarmonicaUK’s core values and its mandate to connect the organisation’s past with its future. Brand images and logos for harmonicas have been agonised over since the mid 1800s, but Steve and Richard together looked at the core values and original principles and wanted to develop a brand that was simple to implement as well as providing a distinctive and memorable brand for the organisation. The initial ideas examined the physical qualities of the harmonica, internally and externally, from reeds to cover plates. Steve also explored lateral concepts such as sound waves, straight lines and curves, and lettering from the pre-existing NHL and HarmonicaUK logos As a design professional Steve was conscious that the outcome should work at any size, from a tiny internet favicon to a full blown festival banner. Questions remained however. How do you select one image to represent every type of harmonica? Should the logo be linear or square? What font would complement the brand? The creative process continued. Eventually, Steve found the solution in a disassembled harmonica. A stylised interpretation of the comb and cover plates seemed to echo the H in the NHL logo and the H in HarmonicaUK’s title. Simultaneously, this idea avoided copying so many other harmonica brands with their familiar play on the harmonica’s breathing holes and physical appearance. After many months of design development, Committee consultation, prototypes and refinements, HarmonicaUK’s new brand, colour scheme and house font were finally passed by HarmonicaUK’s Committee. The outcome may take a moment to settle on the eye. It may appeal instantly. Either way, it is uncomplicated, fresh and imaginative. Our new brand is here to carry HarmonicaUK into the future and pay tribute to those who built our heritage.

HarmonicaUK New Website and automated membership system.

In January of this year, we formed a group of people with IT knowledge and experience to help us make a plan together for a completely new website and automated membership system, thus moving away from our two current websites to one singular, streamlined one. Our work began in looking at what our exact specifications were, and then categorising what was essential, nice to have, could have etc. Over the following months, we moved from the specification to which company could complete this task. White Fuse was our clear winner with its intuitive website: they had a team who could build our website, import our membership and thereafter offer us 5 days a week support. As a member you will see many benefits - you can access your own account and change your address and what information you are interested in hearing about. We have a members only page, where you can access magazines and forums, and for those that enjoy our social and lockdown sessions you can continue your conversations on our forums page or even start a new one in-between our Zooms meetings. Our new membership system will allow us to email out to all members or target smaller audiences as and when necessary. White Fuse have produced a pro video for our launch, and this will also be made available to you as a self-help video to get you started. I know you will love the changes. Many thanks to Dave Hambley, Barbara Tate, Barry Elms, Richard Taylor, Sam Wilkinson, Slawomir Nowordworski and Barry Nichols for their help in various stages this year. Additionally thanks are due to Balwant Thanki, who has been our official photographer for years and has taken hundreds of pictures that we’ve been able to draw from. A final plea. When you come to renew next year, please consider using the new website to set up a direct debit membership. If we can move away from PayPal, Standing Orders, Cash and cheques, then your renewal will need no human input at all, saving much of our volunteers’ time.

Ambassadors

As part of our relaunch, HarmonicaUK’s Committee, Patrons and Presidents have voted on an exciting new concept. We will be appointing six ambassadors to HarmonicaUK to help promote our organisation to new audiences and to inspire younger players

to join our membership. Part of the selection process requires that they should be of a generation younger than the current committee, have shown commitment towards HarmonicaUK, and be of a professional standing which we can all look up to. This global search has been an intensive one, and I am pleased to announce that Rachelle Plas and Sam Spranger are our first two ambassadors. The team will appoint a further four ambassadors in the coming months. We believe that our Ambassadors’ close association with HarmonicaUK will mutually help us further our shared aim of inspiring anyone and everyone to pick up and enjoy the harp. As such, we shall be dedicating a section on the new website to allow them to share their news, ideas and adventures in music. Rachelle Plas I’m so happy to be appointed a HarmonicaUK Ambassador. It’s wonderful news, and I’m very enthusiastic about promoting HarmonicaUK and the harmonica, especially to a young audience. HarmonicaUK is such an active and amazing organisation. The harmonica is a very accessible and popular instrument, and also one of the most transportable music instruments with its pocket size ;-) Rachelle Plas was a member of the French Judo team. A decisive experience which led her to become multiple times French Champion winner of the Tournament of France and vice-world champion of this martial art. She combined her high-level sports career with the exercise of her passion - music - and her artistic activities. She then devoted herself entirely to her artistic projects and released the EP “Cyclone”, then the single “Open your Eyes”. In 2021, Rachelle Plas released her new eponymous album in digital format, along with a music library dedicated to the harmonica, and her JazzPop single “Bubbles”. Sam Spranger As a proud member of HarmonicaUK, I am absolutely thrilled to act as an ambassador for our organisation. There is such a rich membership of passionate players that share my love of promoting education on the instrument. It is a real honour to be part of the force that is bringing HarmonicaUK to the next generation. Picking up the diatonic harmonica at age 13, Sam found that he had a preternatural talent for the instrument. He cut his teeth by taking the open mic, busking, bar, and cafe scenes of London by storm with his spontaneous blazing riffs and heart wrenching solos. He now plays with The Bad Day where he prides himself on being a ferocious live performer and showman who constantly strives to push the boundaries of the instrument and change perceptions of the harp in mainstream society. Additionally, Sam enjoys playing classical, jazz, and ragtime music on the chromatic harmonica.