The Heritage Council

The Heritage Council (established in 1995) aims to ensure that heritage is at the heart of Irish society and decision-making, and that Ireland is internationally recognised as a centre of excellence in heritage management, conservation, and community engagement.

We worked with The Heritage Council to create a contemporary identity that reflects Ireland’s rich heritage, while positioning it for future growth as a champion and promoter of Ireland’s built, natural, and cultural legacy. A key challenge was to unite all of The Heritage Council programmes, projects and schemes under one flexible and recognisable identity, where previously a ‘blizzard’ of various logos and sub brands existed.

Having conducted extensive collaborative research with The Heritage Council stakeholders, we worked with The Heritage Council team to define the personality of the brand, and develop an identity that is timeless, confident, approachable and relevant. The identity was designed to be clear and easy to work with to ensure investment from all stakeholders, including grantees.

The Heritage Council wordmark distinguishes between the Irish and English languages using colour. The wordmark communicates heritage and balance, while being forward-looking and fresh. Through type and colour, the logo conveys timelessness, confidence and relevance. The icon is inspired by the tri-spiral symbol found inside Newgrange. It is made up of three spirals to communicate the three aspects of the The Heritage Council’s remit: built, natural and cultural heritage. The spirals also symbolise growth and longevity.

As part of the project, we created a secondary identity to represent National Heritage Week. The National Heritage Week identity was designed to be recognisable as The Heritage Council’s most prominent programme.

Along with the new identity, we created a wide range of materials including visual identity guidelines, a brand toolkit, and internal and external communication assets. We also sensitively designed interpretive signage and wayfinding for The Heritage Council Headquarters, Kilkenny, which is a protected building.