The Spoke Club —
Canada’s first private art club

Opportunity

Founded in 2009, The Spoke Club, a Toronto-based members-only arts and media club, was looking to update it’s branding. The previous brand no longer met The Spoke's core beliefs and messaging, and they wanted to refresh it’s visual identity to better communicate the community and culture it had built, reach a new and emerging audience of creators, independent consultants, digital influencers, and reinvigorate membership and programming, and distinguish itself from new competition in the market.

Process

Willendorf engaged Community Agency, who had a valuable history of working with The Spoke, and offered third-party objective key learnings and perspectives on the new direction on the brand. Through a process of stakeholder interviews, market research, working in partnership with Community to find and create the right graphics, colours, and vision.

Impact

Through thoughtful collaboration, the new branding for The Spoke Club didn't take itself too seriously. It was witty, artful, playful, and an honest breath of fresh air when compared to its market competitors. It positioned The Spoke as accessible despite being a private club, and put the focus on the incredible members it had, rather than appearing to be elusive and hard to access. In addition to the rebrand, Willendorf took over The Spoke’s programming; ideating and producing an average of 12 events per month, creating an unprecendented six month calendar by working  alongside its newly developed community partners consisting of TIFF, Canadian Film Centre, Opera Atelier, etc.  As a result of the rebrand and thoughtful programming, The Spoke saw an increase in both it’s membership and the general public’s understanding of the club, and its focus in prioritizing and convening Toronto's arts, culture, and media communities. 

Services

Strategic Visioning and Planning
Mission and Vision Development
Positioning and Peer Differentiation
Creative and Brand Development
UX and UI Design
Critical Brand Review and Audits
Graphic Design and Print Solutions
Collateral Design