Uniform designs Aura sofa group branding

Emerging furniture design group Aura is poised to launch its brand identity, designed by Liverpool-based consultancy Uniform Communications.

The bespoke sofa manufacturer, also based in Liverpool, appointed Uniform last summer on the strength of a recommendation from artist Ceri Hand, for whom Uniform has also done branding work.

Founded in 2007 by Paula Smith and Darren Connolly, Aura creates bespoke sofas and seating for businesses and individuals, ranging in price from £2400 to £6000.

Uniform design director Tim Sharp claims the consultancy drove the creative brief, settling on a swan motif and the strapline ‘sofas made with love’, to represent the close working relationship Aura tries to have with its clients.

‘As a start-up company Aura wasn’t entirely certain about what it needed to differentiate itself, but what came through was its personal service, such as e-mailing clients pictures of the sofas under construction,’ says Sharp.

‘We wanted the branding to reflect our light-hearted take on life,’ adds Smith. ‘We don’t want to come across as a normal sofa manufacturer, pretending to be Italian – we don’t like old-fashioned sofas, we just want to make them using a good tradition’.

Uniform makes a feature of the company’s youth in its logo, which bears the words ‘Est 2007’. Besides creating a logo and the brand guidelines, the consultancy also designed a website, which goes live this week.

The branding launches fully on 14 February when Aura’s new 55m2 showroom near Liverpool city centre opens.

Aura hopes to begin work on a commission for a local boutique hotel soon. The 13-bedroom hotel is owned by Gary Millar, proprietor of Parr Street Studios and the Studio 2 bar, which Aura has just refitted.