Tidewater Archive
A visual identity for a public archive of ship logs, built around the rhythm of tide tables.
The brief
The archive holds 40,000 ship logs, some from the 1700s. It had no name the public knew, a reading room that was hard to find and a website that listed opening hours as a scanned PDF.
The trust asked for an identity that could work on a building, a reader's card and a search screen, and that two staff members could use without a designer.
What we made
We named the archive after the tide tables printed at the back of every log. The mark is two circles that shift like high and low water. Everything else is type: one serif, one sans, three sizes.
- Name, mark and type system
- Signage for the building and reading room
- Reader cards, forms and a one-page guidelines sheet
Result
Visits to the reading room doubled in the first year. Staff now produce their own posters from two templates, and the guidelines sheet is pinned above the printer.
