The client

Doncaster Council is the local authority of the Metropolitan Borough of Doncaster in South Yorkshire. It is one of four councils in South Yorkshire and one of 36 in the metropolitan counties of England. Doncaster Council provides the majority of local government services in Doncaster.

The crest development

Doncaster Council’s brand was dated and used inconsistently across internal and external communications, so they approached Ledgard Jepson with auditing their marketing assets and recommending changes. Our primary concern was the quality of their crest. It was last updated in 1974 and was far too complex to be reproduced at small sizes.

We recommended redrawing the crest in a more contemporary style, removing the colour and shortening the length of the wording to Doncaster Council. These bold recommendations gave the crest a much more modern feel, as well as clarity when reproduced.

We studied every detail and aspect of the crest to understand the significance of each element historically, and to ensure that any changes were respectful to the Doncaster story.

A colour version was also requested during the design process to be used for high level communications from the mayor. The colours, taken from a new modern colour palette that we devised, were derived from elements of the new modern council building.