The New Look
07 October 2024
Eastnor’s new logo and image will better reflect the idiosyncratic character of the Castle says
Imogen Hervey-Bathurst
It’s time Eastnor had a makeover. The Castle and Estate are not changing, of course, but it’s time we started to communicate better what a fantastical and magical place Eastnor is. So, we have a new visual identity that uses Eastnor's dragon benches as a starting point for a new logo.
We do have a coat of arms, but coats of arms are such a classic way of expressing the identity of an English country house that we felt this did not do Eastnor justice. We are in the English countryside, certainly. And we are a house. But we are also a castle full of an eclectic mix of furniture and furnishings that have been accumulated and incorporated over years and years, and this makes Eastnor quite extraordinary and unique. The dragon benches have always been a favourite of mine – they are Venetian and date from the 17th century – and so I thought they would be a great inspiration.
The benches feature a type of dragon called a “wyvern”. We looked into how wyvern dragons were depicted in Medieval and Renaissance times and how they were often used in heraldry. This mythical creature (which has two legs instead of the usual dragon’s four) takes its name from the River Wye and River Severn; fittingly the two rivers that Eastnor Castle sits nestled between. In our research, we came across a local legend–Maude and the Dragon–the story of a young girl who finds a dragon in the woods and makes it her pet. This resonated with me, as I was fascinated by our Venetian dragons when I was growing up at Eastnor. What I particularly liked was that they look as if they are peering out and up at you if you sit on them.
There is also something pleasingly Gothic about the dragon motif. Eastnor has its Gothic side too, notably the Gothic Drawing Room designed by Augustus Pugin, the 18th-century artist, critic and architect who also created the interior of the Palace of Westminster in the style of the Gothic Revival.
All this prompted us to brief a designer to draw a new Eastnor logo featuring the wyvern dragon. We approached Peter Horridge, a renowned artist who's previously drawn crests for our King, Liberty and Claridge's, among others. The dragon Peter drew for us became the central feature of Eastnor’s new visual identity allowing us to create consistency across the logos for all the different activities and areas we have here: Eastnor Weddings, Eastnor Estate and The Deer Park.
The colour palette for the new look is drawn from the lush interiors of the castle, which have much in common with those of famous palazzos in Florence and Rome. We used a deep red as the signature hue, which can be found throughout the Castle, particularly in the Great Hall, State Bedroom and Red Hall. We've used gold as a highlight to add a sense of luxury and draw on the ornamentation found all over the building.
The resulting visual identity looks to express the sense of opulence that runs through the interiors and express it in a way that is contemporary through the use of fine and precise typography, employing a modern-day version of a classic engraver’s typeface that would have been used around the 1900s for personal stationery.
I am very pleased with the result as I am so keen to show Eastnor in the light of its difference. We are really not just another historic house – there is something genuinely romantic and mystical about the Castle and its grounds. Strangely, perhaps, despite being a well-known destination in the heart of Herefordshire, Eastnor always feels more international than purely English or British, and our new dragon mark reflects this: the panache of the collections of objects, furniture and furnishings, and the bold, rich and cultural mix of the interiors, particularly the Italian influence.
Ultimately, what we want to say with our new identity is that Eastnor is Eastnor; not elegant and refined, or formal and pretty but dramatic and brave and inspiring.
Imogen Hervey-Bathurst grew up at Eastnor Castle and is a director of Eastnor. Her family is directly descended from the original 16th-century owners and still lives at the Castle.