Purple Circle brands Bewilderwood

Norfolk is set to unveil its latest visitor attraction in the shape of a £1.8m adventure park called Bewilderwood, with branding by Nottingham-based design consultancy Purple Circle Brand Consultants.

Bewilderwood is the brainchild of its landowner Tom Blofeld, who has written an accompanying children’s book depicting the characters that appear in the woods.

The 20ha adventure park is located near Wroxham and has aerial tree houses, zip wires, slides, a maze and a ‘broken bridge’, with winding pathways throughout the forest, with play elements designed by The Treehouse Company.

Two cafés will be situated in the park called Snack Shack and Bewild Food – which will be geared towards families taking their food and sitting on the seats in the woods – as well as a shop.

Blofeld appointed Purple Circle without a pitch last April to come up with the identity, branding, look and feel, and website for the attraction. Additionally, various visitor attraction specialists and set designers were used to help create the characters.

The logo features the name written in a mythical-style, above the strapline ‘A Curious Treehouse Adventure’. This is carried through in various forms to guidelines, signs and promotional material, as well as using images of the woodland characters, such as Swampy, the Thornyclod spider, Mildred the vegetarian crocodile, the Wood Witch and Twiggle.

According to Purple Circle director John Lyle, the idea behind the branding was to have a bit of fun. ‘We wanted to be slightly enchanting – not fairy tale, because that’s a bit girly,’ he says, ‘but magical and mysterious. For the logo, the hand-drawn sketches appealed. There are signs such as finger pointers, fire and safety and ‘lost children’ signs, as well as story signs and ‘ride sides’ for which illustrations have been carried through from the book.’

Lyle adds that he was focused on ‘commercial naivety’, saying the park did not aim to be another Alton Towers and is a simpler form of fun. ‘We are more concerned with getting it right and making an attraction for organic-minded mums who want their children to play properly. It is not upmarket, but it is slightly different.’

Although aimed at four- to 14-year-olds, the park hopes to appeal to all ages. It opens on 22 May.

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