Design Motive rebrands Ascot

Ascot, one of the most prestigious racecourses in the world and home to Royal Ascot, has been rebranded by London branding and digital media consultancy Design Motive.

The revamp was unveiled at the start of the four-day Royal Ascot festival on Monday. It aims to enable the famous venue to live up to its reputation of being one of the top five racecourses in the world, says Design Motive director Oz Freire.

A ten month programme, carried out in collaboration with Merchant, involved an overhaul of Ascot’s entire communications system, from general directional signage to new identities for the several restaurants and bars on the racecourse site.

Design Motive took the unprecedented step of not including a horse on the new corporate identity, replacing it with a crown to emphasise Ascot’s regal connection. The base colours of deep blue and silver are continued through signage, corporate literature and promotional material.

“Ascot stood still for too long,” says Freire. “We changed the environment to live up to expectation, add value to it and help reposition it as a premium world class venue. The rebranding will turn it into one of the Meccas of horse racing which it has always expected to be, but not achieved.”

“By distilling the key values, we dovetailed heritage and modernity to evolve a brand that is proud of its past and relevant in the future,” adds Design Motive brand development director Richard MacGilchrist.

Ascot sales and marketing director Danny Homan says: “We appointed Design Motive for their experience, thorough analysis of our communication and clear understanding of our needs. We are confident they will develop our identity as an integral part of our long term strategy as a world class racing venue.”