Over the years, London-based Alphabetical has honed both a distinctive style and a distinctive client list: often, its most celebrated projects are those for brands or organisations that are both a unique place, and more specifically a site for a community that’s underserved or underrepresented.

In short, Alphabetical has honed its knack for uniting a people-centric, frequently cocreation based approach with a sharply site-specific perspective.

Its 2021 work for infamously dystopian-tinged south London gem Thamesmead, for instance, was much lauded for good reason. Thamesmead was formerly best known for its Brutalist landscapes – and not least, the fact that one of its estates was a key location for Kubrick shooting A Clockwork Orange. It didn’t have the most salubrious reputation, to say the least. But this project instead zoned in on a rarely discussed Thamesmead asset – its nature and wildlife.

Ultimately, Alphabetical’s approach seems to centre on unearthing and celebrating those things that are unnoticed or unloved, and ensuring that the real stakeholders – residents and service users – have a sense of ownership over it all. It’s an MO that seems so obvious, but one that’s often lost to layers of boardroom naysayers, risk-aversion, and/or bureaucracy for its own sake.

Recently, Alphabetical created the superb identity for Joyful Outdoors, an organisation that’s “on a mission to encourage people to nurture themselves in nature” and “driven to help as many people as possible reconnect with nature and find joy in being outside”, according to the studio.

Joyful Outdoors does this by running outdoor workshops where people can learn everything  from foraging to fire lighting and bushcraft to “laughter yoga”. Based in the Surrey countryside, the company was founded by Elspeth Fimpel, who says that her sessions focus on encouraging people to “step away from the digital world, take a breath, and reconnect with the outdoors… slowing down, being present, and engaging with the land in practical, meaningful ways.”

Such a prospect might usually invite a slew of design cliches – a New Agey aesthetic, a raft of greens and browns, a look and feel that leans way too heavily on the ‘hemp ‘n’ Birkenstocks’ vibe beloved by the organic health food shops of yesteryear.

But not so in the hands of Alphabetical, which has deftly eschewed any whiff of worn out tropes with a new identity and brand design that’s all popping colours, bold type, simplicity and – yes – joy.

“We were asked to create a friendly, fun brand identity that amplified a passion for the natural world,” Alphabetical explains. “Inspired by the seasons, we collected a palette of textures and colours from the Surrey countryside, which we could use across the brand, as well as a playful tone of voice that encourages new audiences to get outdoors.”

The wordmark uses a semi bold weight of Poppins by Indian Type Foundry, slightly more widely spaced than standard and stacked one word on top of the other, accompanied by a superbly simple but smart logomark.

That mark is essentially a lowercase ‘j’ with an exaggerated dot (or tittle if we’re being specific/type-nerdy about it) that makes it become both the ‘J’ of ‘Joyful’ and the ‘O’ of ‘Outdoors’. And to top it all off into a neatly clever little concept package, the exaggerated curve at the bottom of the ‘j’ forms a smile shape that instantly connects the logomark with the organisation’s name and purpose.

The logo becomes a lot more than just a brand mark throughout its various applications. The shape is die-cut in business cards – a bold move when you think about it, since the logo is transformed into the negative space.

Not only does this create a nice bit of tactile printed stationery that seems to delight in its own physicality, it also transforms the business card into a useful tool – a viewfinder. Since the business’s purpose is largely about encouraging people to slow down; disconnect from tech; and really, wholly engage with nature, the concept is superb – interactive, functional, and quietly beautiful in its striking monochromatic, logo-centric design.

The use of colour throughout the identity is bold, vibrant and confident – it’s friendly but no-nonsense; pared back but engaging. The brand colours are largely a combination of four tones:  pink; bright, sunshine yellow; warm orange; and a more muted slate-greyish blue. Alphabetical has said the palette is inspired by nature, which makes sense in some cases – less so in the pink and blue hues, but we’ll let that slide.

For me, the only aspect that doesn’t feel as strong as it could is the copy used on ‘motivational’ stickers: ‘Nurture in nature’ is fine, as is ‘Ditch the desk’; but ‘Look, smell, touch’ or ‘Let’s go wild’ might certainly bring a faint musky whiff of ‘swingers party’ to a team bonding foraging exercise. And besides, it’s not the best idea to just go about touching a fair few things in the natural world – ok, it’s only British woodland, not the Australian outback, but let’s not be prodding creatures (or messing with poisonous plants and fungi).

With the identity used across team apparel such as t-shirts, the Joyful Outdoors website, social media templates, stationery, activity packs and more, it’s a deceptively tricky project to get right. It can’t be easy to create an identity that does a lot of the heavy lifting for educational and/or functional tools as well as ultimately promoting one woman’s business – it isn’t just about slapping a logo and some colours across the usual touchpoints, the branding has to flex to become a set of instructions as much as a flag-flyer for Joyful Outdoors.

For the more functional brand assets – things like materials used in workshops – a set of icons works hard, and looks rather nice too. The icons seem to act as succinct little signposts or pictograms, as well as just nice decorative little illustrative flourishes.

With the identity used across team apparel such as t-shirts, the Joyful Outdoors website, social media templates, stationery, activity packs and more (Alphabetical also created a design template system for Fimple to apply the brand physically and digitally in future), it’s a deceptively tricky project to get right. It can’t be easy to create an identity that does a lot of the heavy lifting for educational and/or functional tools as well as ultimately promoting one woman’s business – it isn’t just about slapping a logo and some colours across the usual touchpoints, the branding has to flex to become a set of instructions as much as a flag-flyer for Joyful Outdoors.

Throughout all its applications, the branding is consistent, bright, and compelling. Once again, Alphabetical has mastered the tricky balancing act of site-specificity and universality; cliché avoidance and clarity.