Member Article

Allen Design Team help Ward CNC develop a new brand identity

One of the great names in Sheffield’s industrial story is moving firmly into the 21st century with the support of city centre design, digital and marketing agency Allen Design Team.

Ward CNC Machinery is one of the UK’s leading suppliers of CNC machine tools. It was originally part of the Thomas W Ward Group, which had its origins in Sheffield over 130 years ago.

Ward CNC today employs a workforce of more than 50 and is the sole UK distributor for a number of the world’s leading machine tool manufacturers.

But when it came to linking its great industrial past with a successful place in the competitive 21st century marketplace, the company sought the advice of Sheffield’s Allen Design Team.

Allen Design Team successfully provide customers with deliverable, cost effective marketing solutions and recent clients range from Italian Beverage Company to woollen textile manufacturer, Hainsworth.

For Ward CNC, Allen Design Team created a fresh new marketing approach that allied its great industrial heritage with its more recent international successes in the field of engineering.

The design is now being used everywhere from the company’s advertising, promotional material, exhibition graphics and marketing brochure.

“The brief was really all about introducing a new look and feel for all the company’s marketing materials without redesigning a brand that has been in existence for many years,” said account director Andrew Brown.

“What we have been able to do is give them consistency in the way they market themselves and given them a new look through the introduction of a company brochure which now becomes their flagship piece of marketing material.”

The brochure covers every aspect of the company from its famous past – including the celebrated Tommy Ward’s elephant of the 19th century – through to its current successful head office and Sheffield showroom, still based in the company’s original headquarters close to the city centre.

“We used a Sheffield photographer, Andy Gallacher, and our own team provided art direction, working closely with the company to create exactly the sort of vibrant, successful image they want and need,” said Andrew.

“We are delighted with the result and feel that Ward CNC is now firmly placed to build on more than a century of success with an identity that speaks of pride in the past and growth for the future.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by John Highfield .