It’s not just our name and logo. It’s about who we are, what we do, how we do it, and how other people see us. It embraces our culture, attitudes and behaviours, defines what we look and sound like, and how we work with colleagues, partners, customers, suppliers, and the wider world. Visually and verbally, it’s about how we bring our story to life.
Our brand
A progressive commercial business
Using our corporate brand helps us communicate effectively and achieve our strategic objectives as a progressive commercial business. It reinforces our core proposition of ‘conscious commercialism’, sits at the heart of what we are about, and is the unifying idea that will help us all work together as one business and one team, with a common sense of purpose.’
We are enterprising in how we create value, agile and considered in how we do business
We respect and are open and honest with each other and the people we work with
We do what we say and tackle our work with spirit and commitment, empowering ourselves and others
We work collaboratively with colleagues and partners, connecting people, ideas and opportunities
A set of behaviours Our brand is as much about how we behave, as it is about words and pictures. We are committed to four clearly defined behaviours that will help us project our distinctive personality and build positive long term relationships with all our stakeholders. Behaving in these ways is vital to our performance as a progressive commercial business.
Peoplecentred.
Customer focussed.
We are absolutely dedicated to being a customer focussed business, seeking and acting on feedback. We all play a role as brand ambassadors in our dealings and our engagement with customers and each other, and we should all strive to deliver exceptional service, performance and value every day and in everything we do.
We are a people-centred business, recognising and rewarding talent, safeguarding those we work with, understanding our customers and those we do business with, and the communities within which we work. So it’s important that this message is expressed consistently, across all our communications.
This is our brand story In our corporate communications, we use a storytelling style which helps us express ourselves as a business that delivers value beyond financial return. Here’s a short version of our brand story that we can use to describe our business to the wider world, clearly and consistently. It’s one that we all subscribe to and are comfortable using.
The Crown Estate is an independent commercial business, created by Act of Parliament.
Our diverse assets include the whole of Regent Street and much of St James’s, as well as retail and leisure parks throughout the country.
We are one of the UK’s biggest rural landowners, with agricultural land, parkland and forestry, and our active asset management also extends to coastal land and the seabed.
Our purpose is to make sure that the land and property we invest in and manage are worked, developed and enjoyed sustainably, to deliver the best value over the long term. This reflects our values of commercialism, integrity and stewardship.
At the heart of how we work is an astute, considered, collaborative approach that helps us create opportunities and success for our business, our partners, customers and the wider community. We call this ‘conscious commercialism’.
100% of our revenue profit is paid to the UK Treasury, but our role, expertise, and the quality, scale, impact and importance of the assets we actively manage mean that The Crown Estate delivers value that goes beyond financial return.
Our logo This is our special badge. It is always displayed in a solid colour or reversed out of one, always with clear space around it. To reflect the diversity and dynamism of our business, it can be in any colour from our colour palette (see over) or black. It can range right or left, but is never centred or intrusively big, and must never be re-drawn or altered in any way.
Always give our logospace.
Dark bluePantone 541C 100% M 60% Y 0% K 45%
R 0 G 63 B 114#003F72
GoldPantone 130C 0% M 35%
Y 100% K 0%R 240 G 171 B 0#F0AB00
Mustard
Pantone 111
C 0%
M 11%
Y 100% K 27%
R 171 G 141 B 0
#AB8D00B
urnt orange
Pantone 180
C 0%
M
76%
Y 83% K
11%
R 193 G
53 B 50
#C13532
Green
Pantone 377
C 43% M 0%
Y 100% K 23%
R 113 G 149 B 0
#719500
Bright
green
Pantone
368
C 65% M 0%
Y 100%
K 0%
R 120
G 190
B 32
#78BE20
Teal
Pant
one
569
C 9
4%
M 0
%
Y 56
%
K 18
%
R 0
G 1
32 B
120
#008
478
Bright blue
Pantone 299
C 87% M 18%
Y 0% K 0%
R 0 G 160 B 223
#00A0DF
Petrol blue
Pantone 633
C 91%
M
0%
Y 15% K 27%
R 0 G
125 B 164
#007DA4
Purple
Pantone 2592
C 60% M 100%
Y 0% K 0%
R 143 G 35 B 179
#8F23B3
Pink
Pant
one
240
C 27%
M
94%
Y 0%
K
0%
R 19
6 G
38
B 14
9
#C42
695
Sof
t red
Pan
tone
215
C 0
%
M 9
4%
Y 34
%
K 2
7%R
171
G 1
9 B
85
#AB
1355
A dynamic business
We’re a confident, dynamic business. So we have a vibrant colour palette to help us put that across. We make the most of these bright, bold colours, but avoid putting clashing colours together. We shouldn’t use one colour too often for a particular area or activity, and should also make good use of white space to make our colours look more vibrant still.
Vibrant colours
We can use it like this
Occasionally, we can even use
it like this
Our type of type
We can use it like this
Helvetica Neue
We are an open, honest business. So we use an open, honest, typeface. For Word, PowerPoint, publications and digital communications, it’s Helvetica Neue Roman 55. For design work, we also use Helvetica Neue 45 Light and Helvetica 75 Bold. Type can be on white or reversed out of a solid colour, generally ranged left or occasionally centred. When reversing out, please be careful with your choice of colours to maintain legibility.
We tell stories
that have a beginning
a middle and an end
Our storytelling style
Ours is a business with a great story to tell. One of the ways we do this is with ‘hallmark stories’ from around the business that demonstrate conscious commercialism. Each is told using 3-part headlines and pictures. The stories are about thoughts, actions and consequences, and the impacts and benefits of the way we do business.
a middle and an endand they should always work together
In words and pictures
Our pictures should tell a story
just as much as our words
Our pictures also tell stories, using close-ups and wide shots to convey the scope and scale of our business, and interesting angles and crops to get people’s interest and attention. We aim to make them real and ‘in the moment’, creating narratives that portray us as a progressive, commercial business, and show our assets being worked, developed and enjoyed.
bold infographics
Total visitors
14,557
Car 22.2% Mid-size vans 5.5%
Train 11% Motorcycles 5.5%
Bicycle 11% Taxi 5.5%
Bus 11% Walking 5.5%
HGV 5.5% Boat 5.5%
Large van 5.5% Other 5.5%
and impactful numbers
We use simple icons
Making pictures speakWe’re a business rich in data, facts and information. So we’ve developed a straightforward graphic language to help us communicate them. Here are some examples of the icons, infographics and big graphic numbers that we use to do this. Graphics can be used on their own or alongside photography in storytelling, to show facts and figures.
Quietly authoritative
We tell it like it is
Our tone of voice is...
Simple and straightforward
Friendly and conversational
Clear and confident
Putting words to work
We are a progressive, commercial business that thrives on building strong working relationships. So we always aim to speak and write like one taking time to find the right words to put our story across simply, honestly and confidently. Our tone of voice is never corporate, complicated, overly formal, arrogant or self-important. What it is are all the very positive things shown here.
How it all works and what it looks like
When all the elements of our brand come together, a distinctive personality starts to emerge. When this is delivered consistently, people are better able to recognise and remember us, and appreciate who we are, both as people and as a business. In just these few examples, you can see how this works to paint a portrait of The Crown Estate and the stories it has to tell.
Further information and resources
Should you need more information on any of the elements of our brand, you’ll find guidance in ‘The Crown Estate Book of the Brand’ on i-site. For any additional advice, sourcing typefaces, accessing or contributing to our photolibrary, please contact the Corporate Affairs, Marketing and Internal Communications Team.
Book of the Brand
- The Book of the Brand brings together all components of The Crown Estate brand. It serves as a reference tool for our staff, as well as third party designers and agencies, on everything from the dimensions of our logo through to our tone voice.- You can find the Book of the Brand on our website for sharing
with external partners and on iSite.
The Crown EstateBook of the brand
Version 1.1 – October 2014
Word documents and templates
- We are in the process of bringing a number of our key documents into our new visual identity. For assistance, please contact the Corporate Affairs, Marketing and Internal Communications Team.
Business cards and badges
- Business cards and magnetic name badges in our new visual identity are available from Nick Kelleher in the IS team.
Stationery
- Updated corporate stationery, such as letterheads and compliment slips, is in the process of being rolled-out. For further information, please contact the Corporate Affairs, Marketing and Internal Communications Team.
- PowerPoint templates in the brand style enable us to easily build external presentations within our visual identity. You can choose from a range of slides and styles from across our colour palette – from the drop-down ‘New Slide’ tab within PowerPoint.
- Our updated Corporate Presentation is also available here.
PowerPoint templates
Helping us tell our story more effectively Our brand is here to help us, bring us all together, and communicate our business in the best and most effective way we can. Please work with it, apply it consistently and take care of it, so we can continue to bring it to life in all our corporate communications.
Thank you.