Joining two cultures is always difficult, but when you have two companies and two very different styles it's a tricky ask for any designer. The brief began with no name, an understanding that neither current branding style would work and a lot of unanswered questions.

ballroom + street + ballet x formation = x

We had a concept for how the team itself would work, but no idea for a name. We worked on blending company names (and variations of), dance terms (they really didn't work with the style we had in mind). After a lot of frustration, we instead developed the style and brief without a name in mind. This gave us a new way of looking at the problem.

Who should join the team? What are their skills? What do they enjoy? Where do we find them?

By moving the focus to the team itself, it became much easier to develop a brief. The team is looking for older children to teenage dancers that are not necessarily from a particular style. The focus is also on marketing it to male dancers as these are rarer to find yet will be a 50:50 split in the team. Therefore, the branding will have a very definite male edge yet with a hint of softness to not isolate the team's female members. After developing a style for the logo, we then retackled the name issue.

What sort of name is 'Tolerable Storm'?

We looked at a number of solutions before settling on 'Tolerable Storm'. All Sorts of Performing Arts and Relax & Grow are currently running a competition in classes to see if anyone can see why that is the name. As such, I can't say too much, but the answer is on this page for those who search for it.

The final logo was drawn up traditionally using uni-pen fine-liners and Copic multi-liners before being taken into Adobe Capture and, subsequently, Adobe Illustrator.

For more information on Tolerable Storm, contact All Sorts of Performing Arts or Relax & Grow. For branding project queries, visit our website. See the links below for more details: