A new business offering student accommodation to the people of Coventry came to Arch Creative in search of a new brand. That new business was Dooley & Saint.
The two owners, Tom and Ben, based the company title on their nicknames. Tom’s Dad’s pet name for him as a child was Tom Dooley – a reference to a folk song of the same name. Ben is a former rugby player – and fan of the Northampton Saints. Put them together and you’ve got Dooley & Saint.
This unconventional moniker reveals a bit about what Dooley & Saint stand for. Yes, they’re in the student accommodation sector – but they’re much more. They do things differently. Students will come to Dooley & Saint and see it as a place of community, that also happens to do student accommodation.
There was an instant association we made when we heard the name Dooley & Saint. It sounds like a 70s/80s cop show, police procedural or crime thriller. Starsky & Hutch. Cagney & Lacey. The Saint. All of these iconic pieces of pop culture came to mind when we were initially considering the brand and its look and feel.
We offered a few other options, but the crime-action-show vibe won out and we set about creating a brand look and feel that conjured up infamous double acts such as Bodie & Doyle from The Professionals, Randall & Hopkirk and Dempsey and Makepeace. These references may be lost on younger generations, but the retro graphics bring the brand to life in a way that appeals to all ages.
Using vibrant colours and a classic 70s style typography, the logo we created for Dooley & Saint is instantly reminiscent of the shows we’re paying homage to. We’ve featured a Coventry skyline in some of our artwork to ground the business geographically. This, coupled with silhouette imagery, and a graphic featuring a stylised Jaguar X-JS (the car of The Saint, plus a piece of Coventry heritage), has created a bold identity for the company that will stand out in a crowded marketplace.
We’ve future proofed the brand so that it can work equally as well branding a coffee shop or burger bar – a place where people can hang out – as well as a range of merchandise.
“Arch Creative were proactive and adventurous in their approach to our branding project. Our brief was to create something fresh and exciting for the student letting sector – and Arch’s spin on our company name blew us out of the water, and then some! We’ve now got a clever and unique brand that also has scope to develop into other new markets.”
Tom Foulerton (Dooley)
Dooley & Saint