As Creative Black Country celebrates 10 years of championing the arts, it felt like the perfect time to refresh the brand—keeping its legacy intact while creating a dynamic new identity for the future. Enter Lindsay Baker, the designer behind Sister Minor, whose passion for the region and eye for bold, expressive design made her the perfect fit for the job.

Lindsay’s approach to the CBC rebrand is rooted in connection, creativity, and community—three values that sit at the heart of everything CBC does. Inspired by the diverse cultural stories of the Black Country, she’s woven together a visual identity that’s playful, energetic, and full of movement, reflecting the collaborations and creative journeys CBC has fostered over the years.

In this Q&A, Lindsay shares her creative process, the inspirations behind the new brand, and what it was like designing for an organisation that means so much to the local arts scene.

Can you tell us about your approach to the Creative Black Country brand refresh? What was your starting point for the redesign?

I was really excited when Creative Black Country approached me to work on their brand refresh project last year - as both a proud Wulfrunian and a creative working in the region who is inspired by the important work CBC do to support the arts and cultural scene around the region. I really wanted to take care of the legacy of CBC’s brand and mark this important point in their journey celebrating 10 years of amplifying underrepresented voices through arts and culture.

I always start with a massive mind map to help structure the flow of my ideas, explore the key points of the brief and capture all the potential conceptual routes I could explore. From speaking to the CBC team, I knew that they wanted to shout about all the creative projects that they have enabled which celebrate the richness of the Black Country's diverse cultures. So the community in the Black Country were always at the heart of my ideas, in order to create a new look and feel which spoke to them and was inclusive. We also discussed how some kind of graphic device which showed CBC’s part in creating these connections and promoting collaboration could visually link elements together - and this is where the idea for threads which weave and flow through the designs came from.

Once I have an idea of the creative routes, I would like to follow I then start to sketch out ideas and play with shape, colour and type to explore how these concepts could come to life visually.

What were the key influences or inspirations behind the new design style?

I knew I wanted to have some sort of thread or strand within the design which was playful and energetic, so I explored many different ways to represent this, from clean and sharp geometric shapes and straight lines which could overlap and interweave, echoing the work of Anni Albers (pictured above), through to an expressive and illustrative style of line which could loop and connect. I’ve always loved the work of abstract artist Piero Dorazio whose brightly coloured lines play across the canvas, and so it was this vibrancy and energy I wanted to bring to the brand and the flowing design style ended up being the chosen concept.

I also firmly rooted my creative thinking in what I see as the fabric of our region, thinking about the architecture, languages, textile patterns and personalities that make the Black Country’s cultural heritage so unique. An abundance of colourful and flowing lines felt right to represent how all these stories are connected and helps to create an uplifting and fun brand identity.

Were there any challenges in the process? How did you overcome them?

It's always difficult to narrow down your ideas into 1 or 2 concepts, and there was so much inspiration to draw from for this project! I always like to start with one massive artboard in Illustrator playing with lots of ideas and then start to group things together and see how it develops naturally.

I also always try to future proof my work and knew that the team at CBC would need to be able to pick the brand identity up easily and create their own digital and print assets in house. So I made sure that the team had a suite of flexible design elements and templated assets which they could build comms material with, along with creating a user friendly toolkit which detailed how to use the typefaces, colour palette and graphic elements.

The refreshed brand feels bold and dynamic—what message do you hope it conveys to audiences?

The new brand feels empowered and expressive whilst maintaining the relaxed and upbeat feel of the organisation. It is joyful and bright to help represent our flourishing cultural scene in the Black Country. And I feel the fun and carefree feel fits with the warm welcome and down to earth sense of humour which our region is well known for. It is hopeful for a future where arts and culture can still play a prominent part in bringing our diverse community together, fostering creative expression and telling their remarkable stories.

Can you talk about any specific elements (colours, typography, motifs) that you feel are especially significant in this redesign?

The looping and playful threads weave and flow through the designs, changing colour as they progress and linking elements, like CBC’s wonderful project imagery and impactful messaging, along the way.

This expressive quality of line can also be found in the new logo which features hand drawn letters, subverting the usual letter shapes, injecting personality and providing bright pops of colour. Following this I then created four line drawn icons, which help to denote CBC’s programme strands, and a flexible background pattern, so everything consistently ties together.

The colour palette features warm vivid tones which feel inviting and complement the colourful nature of CBC’s photography. Earthy tones of olive, mustard, sky blue and teal are balanced with vibrant red and pink.

A characterful and striking typeface creates bold headings and the unique letter shapes echo the curves of the undulating threads. This is paired with a clean and contemporary sans serif for body copy.

What has been the most rewarding part of working on this project?

It was fantastic to be able to bring the brand to life through motion and we worked with Bilston based animator Pica / Dan Silverstone who animated the logo, bringing in lots of looping threads from all directions to create the letterforms, along with the icons and patterns. We also worked on a set of animated social media posts/reels and bookend transitions for CBC to use in future films they are producing, so there are lots of opportunities to make the brand really jump off the screen.

What’s next for you? Are there any other projects you’re excited about?

I’m working on a couple of really exciting branding projects for arts venues in the Midlands this Spring which is my favourite kind of work to do :) You’ll also find me on the organising team for the Birmingham Design Festival which is taking place this June. And my husband Tim and I are busy designing and screenprinting tshirts and prints inspired by life and culture in Wolverhampton and the Black Country for our fashion brand True Reverie.

A Bold New Look: Creative Black Country’s Brand Refresh with Sister Minor