Entrepreneur has Vision for book-selling venture

Brighton-based consultancy Vision has created the name and brand identity for Btec, a specialist retailer that aims to sell educational products to ethnic minority groups in the UK.

The consultancy has also designed signage and stationery and is currently working on point-of-sale material, corporate literature and an e-commerce capable website.

The entrepreneur behind the scheme, Ismail Ahmed, has been exporting books to Somalia in eastern Africa for about three years, but now plans to expand in the UK, through both retail outlets and via the website.

A shop in Southall, west London will open in the next two weeks and another store is planned for the Wembley area. Ahmed is targeting both local schools and the general public.

‘Ismail’s business plan is to open a chain of shops, catering for ethnic minorities in the educational sector, supplying books and multimedia learning technology,’ according to Vision managing director Richard Maennling.

The brief was to create a ‘modern, attractive and distinctive’ brand to appeal to Btec’s key constituency of 12to 18-year-olds, says Maennling.

The design solution ‘communicates the required degree of ecological and technological balance’, he explains, with the green representing books and blue used to represent technology.

The name ‘Btec’ is also intended to represent the ‘two sides of the business, books and technology’, says Maennling.

Vision creative director Piero Barba led the project, working with designers Jason Bannister and James Bates.

The consultancy won the work following a four-way credentials pitch in July.