Britain’s canals have been crucial since the Industrial Revolution, but change is in the water for the Canal & River Trust.

Britain’s waterways sometimes slip into the background. The solace of a walk by the Regent’s Canal; a picnic on the banks of the Isis; a slow-paced holiday travelling up the trans-Pennine Rochdale Canal: these are quiet pleasures, not readily associated with the challenges of government funding and commercial maintenance.

But the canals and rivers of Britain are moving into the spotlight. Danny Boyle’s Olympic Opening Ceremony traced the journey of the Olympic torch along the waterways, culminating in David Beckham and Arsenal Ladies midfielder Jade Bailey speeding up the Thames to hand over the symbol of the Games to Sir Steve Redgrave, and the photograph of the moon rising into the Olympic rings hanging from Tower Bridge is one of the most powerful images to have come out of London 2012.

So it’s an apposite time for the Canal & River Trust to have made its debut. The Canal & River Trust is the new brand of what was previously British Waterways – but the change goes deeper than just a new name.

British Waterways was set up in 1962 as a board to control the majority of canals, as well as a number of rivers and docks, in England,

Scotland and Wales. It was a wholly government-owned corporation, sponsored by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) in England and Wales, and by the Scottish Government in Scotland; its charitable arm The Waterways Trust ran museums of British Waterways’ history within the sites of the National Waterways Museums.

Peer review

Gary Black, Uffindell

It’s always difficult to be critical of other designers’ work. However, I’m struggling to find anything positive to say about the new Canal & River Trust identity. Personally I liked the original British Waterways brand mark (apart from the typography). Any successful identity should be easily understandable and reflect the organisation, which the old identity did. I thought the balance of elements, hump back bridge, water reflections and bullrushes gave the impression that it covered the rivers and the surrounding wildlife. It was nicely crafted. For me the new identity says less about the canal/river environment and more about wildlife. It looks more like a wildlife/birdlife trust, or dare I say it, a sign for a nice little riverside pub. The bridge has now become simply a holding device unrecognisable as a bridge unless seen alongside with the previous identity. I would love to know what the new identity does that the old one didn’t.

Britain’s canal network is truly extraordinary: the Canal & River Trust, which has taken over the care of waterways in England and Wales (Scotland’s canals are now overseen by the separate public corporation Scottish Canals), now has responsibility for 2,000 miles of waterways. And half of the population of the UK lives within five miles of a canal or river. But prior to the rebrand, British Waterways was unable to do the job that was needed.

This boiled down, in large part, and as these things often do, to money. It was surprising to discover just how financially driven the organisation was. “It was much more commercial than you would expect from a government department,” said Simon Salem, marketing director of the Trust. “In recent years, British Waterways had earned about 70% of its income from commercial activities: the biggest lump is a property portfolio, then we earn significant amounts from boat and mooring licenses, as well as B2B utilities costs.”

Intriguingly, there’s also a telecoms business on the books. “In the 90s, when we realised the data revolution was taking off, we took the opportunity to lay in fibre optic cables,” said Salem, “because it causes far less

disruption in a canal than in roads. That business now brings in about £7 million a year.

“But there was never enough money to look after everything we wanted. Our government grant was about £40 million a year – when you think about the many things the government funds, particularly in times of austerity, waterways aren’t at the top of the list. Understandably, hospitals and schools are a bit further up for investment. We thought that there was a great deal more that we could do if we were a charity.”

The decision to move into the charitable sector wasn’t one that Salem and his colleagues took lightly. Research showed that there was huge public support for and enjoyment of the waterways, with over 10.5 million people visiting them in England and Wales each year. To mobilise this support and take advantage of the volunteering and donation opportunities, British Waterways needed to become completely independent. The model Salem cites is the National Trust.

“We now own the canals, rivers, and other properties, under a deed of trust in perpetuity from the government – basically, they can’t come and pinch them back,” he explains. “Our grant has been changed to a 15 year contract, with a three year rise, so we’re in the position of having a portion of fixed earnings. That, combined with our previous commercial activities, will be layered with the volunteering and fundraising that the new status allows to happen.”

Every visitor to a Canal & River Trust property is now a potential supporter, requiring a powerful – a state of affairs that requires a really powerful brand to convert that support. But changing an organisation into a charity is “the hardest thing”. That’s according to John Rushworth, a partner at Pentagram, which provided pro bono advice on the new brand.

“It’s one thing to switch the focus of an organisation,” said Rushworth, “but the key is how you change the culture of the organisation to mirror its new ambition. In this case, the commercial-emotional balance had to be reversed. British Waterways was commercial first, emotional second – it used the emotional asset it had to generate income. The Canal & River Trust has to protect its emotional asset, and generate commercial assets in a way that doesn’t undermine that primary aim.

“It’s a slow process. To start a new company is one thing, because you’re building from scratch; to update an identity is relatively easy, because identity evolves along with a company. But this is the hardest thing, because the organisation, and everyone in it, has been going in one direction – because that’s what they’ve learnt over many years – and now you’re saying that they have to go in another direction. You have to create principles that encourage that change – and you can’t expect it to go fast.”

The Canal & River Trust hasn’t jettisoned the entirety of the British Waterways brand, however. “We did our homework!” Salem pointed out. “There was affection for the brand’s heritage, but little involvement or identification. People got really worked up when we told them we were changing, which was a good thing.”

It was decided that the power of potential charitable status should be tested, which was how Pentagram ended up taking on the pro bono project. Rushworth was dry on the subject: “Well, they seemed like nice people. Obviously, it doesn’t benefit us very much – it does a lot more for the client. But I suppose we do it because it’s a form of marketing for Pentagram.”

The brief that started the project was based on the core emotional concept of the canals and waterways as quiet, wild places in urban contexts, and as crucial in shaping local areas. “The positioning that was presented was ‘a haven for people’, to which we added ‘and nature’, just to make it explicit,” said Rushworth.

“This became a workable concept for us to take away and apply,” said Salem. A new name wasn’t a given at the start of the project, but it became clear that it was needed following extensive research. The word ‘trust’ aligns the new brand with its charitable peers. “Canal & River Trust, as a name, forces the issue of the new identity,” said Rushworth. “It acknowledges the task in hand and the organisation’s journey.”

Canal & River Trust’s visual identity is summed up in the image of a swan, against the backdrop of a bridge. It’s both evolutionary and revolutionary, as it keeps the image of the humpback bridge that also figured in the British Waterways logo, but adds a more emotive, animated element in the bird.

“The name and imagery went through various iterations,” said Salem. “There were two variants up to the final stages, when the name was formally endorsed and the last form of the logo decided.We had great involvement from our stakeholders, particularly the trustees, throughout the process.”

The rebranding had begun in 2009, and had entailed putting an entirely new governance structure in place. “It was a massive exercise for change,” said Salem. “We had one group of directors working on the technicalities of the deal, so getting everything in place from a legislative standpoint. We also had an overlapping group looking at all the new challenges that we would face, so communicating with employees, involving users, talking to other charities. And we wanted to be prepared for fundraising, which we hadn’t done before: so a year before the trust came into being, we recruited a head of fundraising from Christian Aid.”

Once the government had signed off on the switch, DEFRA advertised for transition trustees that are now the trustees of the new charity. They worked with the British Waterways trustees for about 15 months before the launch of the new brand.

A new board and head of fundraising meant that fundraising could start pre-launch, and corporate partnerships were crucial to this. Three major organisations have already pledged support to the new charity: the People’s Postcode Lottery, Google Maps, and The Co-Operative Bank.

“It sounds obvious, but the Google partnership is about putting Britain’s towpaths on the map,” said Salem. “People who visit are much more positive about what we do – so we want to enable that and make journey planning easier for our visitors. Also, crudely, being on the map means more visitors, which means more sign-ups in our fundraising efforts.” And Google’s reputation benefits from the conservation aims of the Canal & River Trust – as Ed Parsons, geospatial technologist at Google UK, said, “canal towpaths offer green routes through our towns and cities – by working with the Canal & River Trust we’re encouraging people to discover their local waterways.”

The Co-Operative Bank has come on board to help friends of the Trust provide financial support for its work, while the People’s Postcode Lottery is providing funds for conservation work across the network. And there are more partners to come, says Salem: “We can’t name them all, but there are exciting prospects. Volunteer fundraising was never going to become our main financial support – we have a very different business model to most charities – and the partnerships are part of that model. All the incremental improvements and increases are tremendously powerful, because of whatthey represent.”

Having partnerships to announce at launch was also important for bringing stakeholders on board with the new identity. “We wanted to get everything clear early on,” said Salem, hence the period between September 2011 and June 2012 which was dedicated to implementation. “Often, reactions to rebrands focus on the negative – on the cost, etc. We wanted the focus to be on the charity and the work it was going to do, not just on the new name and logo.”

Putting the new brand out into the world is an ongoing challenge for the Canal & River Trust. Signage over 2000 miles of waterways is a big task. “We were always operating on the principle that it would take a few years,” said Salem. “We have thousands of signs, tons of vans and kit. It really demonstrated the power of volunteering, however: we appealed for volunteers to go out to 40 or 50 of our most-visited sites, and they went out and provided photographs and lists of what needed updating. It was great mobilisation, and staff are going out and doing more of it. The uniforms have been updated enough so that it all matches, and all the heavy duty stuff is being replaced gradually. It’s a pragmatic approach!”

The Canal & River Trust brand was finally launched in June of this year, heralding a watershed in the approach to protecting and conserving Britain’s waterways. The brand is taking part in a survey to monitor perception, but it’s early days yet. “We’ll get the first results in about a year, maybe 18 months,” said Salem. “It’s about seeing if public feelings line up with ours, but we predict they will. All the indications are that it’s been a good start.”