Bradshaws Yard

BRADSHAWS YARD: WELCOMING A COMMUNITY BACK

Bradshaw’s Yard has been a family farm since the 1960s. After two decades with the gates all but closed, the family set out to reopen it as a multi-use destination with padel courts, a café, a nursery, a Pilates studio and a farm shop. We led the full rebrand, from brand strategy through to visual identity and a design system the team now runs themselves.

What we did

– Brand strategy using our WYRD framework

– Visual identity, including colour and a custom typeface setup

– Illustration style and illustration library

– Full design system for print, signage, Canva and social

– Handover, guidelines and team enablement 

A BRIEF WITH A LOT TO HOLD

Reopening a farm after 20 years is no small deal. Bradshaw’s Yard needed to carry a long family history, win back people who remembered it, and introduce itself to a new audience with a very different set of reasons to visit. The weekly farm shop regular, the first-time padel player and the parent looking for a nursery all had to feel the place was for them.

We began with our WYRD brand strategy, which goes beyond a standard positioning exercise to explore a brand’s tribe and its shadow. It gave us a clear, shared understanding of who Bradshaw’s Yard was for and how it needed to feel. The result was a single idea to guide everything that followed: welcome back.

COLOUR & CHARACTER

One detail shaped the identity more than any other. Bradshaw’s Yard was known for its red. When the farm closed, everything was painted green, a colour that explicitly said “we’re not open anymore.” Bringing the red back became the most important move in the brand: a signal of reopening, and a link to the strawberry picking, Christmas trees and Sally Strawberry’s little red van that people remember.

Around the red, we built a colourful, expressive identity with illustration at its heart. Every illustration looks as though it was drawn on the back of a napkin. The effect is deliberate: homemade feels warm, and warm feels welcoming. It lets a multi-use destination feel personal rather than corporate, and gives each part of the site its own character within one coherent world.

BUILT FOR THE TEAM TO RUN

The brand needed to work every day, not just at launch. We handed over a complete design system, including a custom typeface setup, designed for the Bradshaw’s Yard team to use across print, signage, Canva and social. It gives them the flexibility to create quickly and the structure to stay consistent, so the character of the brand holds up as the destination grows. We also developed a dedicated padel brand that leans into a slightly more polished feel.

The result is an identity that looks relaxed and is built with rigour. Bradshaws Yard is now open, and the brand feels as though it has always been part of the place.