Sky High Sports are a travel operator, providing sporting tour and experiences for schools and universities.
Ian Paget was approached to create a new logo and identity system for the company that would allow it to become the industry leader in sporting travel and experiences.
Sky High Sports was founded by Richie Gledson from a farmhouse back-bedroom in 2009. From that day he has grown the company to become a highly respected Rugby touring business that has helped over 4,000 individuals across the world with their tour arrangements.
Within ten years the Sky High Sports brand has evolved, adding cricket tours, city tours, corporate travel and more to its already well established Rugby tour expertise.
To assist with growth, to better target those looking for Rugby Tours and Cricket Tours the company planned to create sub brands that would sit beneath Sky High Sports as a parent company.
Ian Paget was approached at first to design a freestanding logo for The Rugby Tour Specialists, however, through conversations it was suggested that the company have a full identity system that would allow subsidiary companies to visually relate to the parent brand. Creating a consistent identity across the organisation would ensure equity built in any existing and future subsidiary brand would help to promote the whole family of companies rather than the one business.
In order to achieve this the business required a distinct identity from the top down. This meant the parent logo for Sky High Sports required a redesign, and an identity framework was needed to create a consistent look and feel for existing, and future subsidiary brands.
This will be the third logo used by the organisation. The first company logo featured a simple upward arrow. The second featured an interlinking Y and H, with no clear reasoning. As there was no distinct recognisable characteristics already established, beyond use of an orange and black colour palette, the project started with a blank canvas.
There was a number of characteristics that I felt the new identity needed:
This was no easy challenge, but an effective solution was found and is presented throughout this case study.
The final solution is a bold, striking crest that introduces a distinct crown that rests at the top of the logo. A crown because it’s a symbol of victory, however, the shape also forms an upwards flying bird who’s wings are stretched out, flying upwards ‘sky high’ travelling the world.
The crown is paired with a bold condensed font that screams with confidence. It stands tall, with the strength of a rugby player and its team. As one of the companies ethos is “we succeed individually and collectively” this attribute seems appropriate for both the company and its customers.
To close off the mark, the bottom segment of the logo forms a shield, a shape commonly associated with sporting brands. This shape also references a rugby ball, relating back to the origins of the business.
As the separate elements; the crown, wordmark and shield are so distinct, the elements can be reconfigured whilst remaining recognisable. This allows the logo to work as a very versatile identity system, working well in a range of ‘shield’ configurations, and ‘bullet’ variants as shown in the images below.
Once the parent logo for Sky High Sports was designed it made the subsidiary brands easy to visualise. The crown would be the single element that would bring all companies together, being a distinct, recognisable asset for the entire brand. The same font is also used to assist with recognition.
Along with the Sky High Sports logo design, the logos were also created for ‘Rugby Tour Specialists’ and ‘Cricket Tour specialists using the same consistent elements. So that future sub brand logos can be designed consistently, Ian Paget also designed a set of guidelines as shown below.
