A name for the Pobl

By Tom,

December 2016

Design
In 2016 two of Wales’ most well known social landlords, Seren Group and Gwalia announced a merger to become—by a large margin Wales’ largest organisation of its type.

The new group is made up of 2,500 staff, manages 15,000 homes and will invest over £100m in new homes over the next 5 years.

Following a credentials pitch we were chosen to help the group create its new brand. Time was short—we had just six weeks to undertake research, create a name and develop the brand ready for launch.

We always say it… naming is hard. Naming an organisation of this size, in a few weeks, is extremely hard. One of the requirements was that the group needed a Welsh name, and given that one of its audiences is city based investors it needed to work across both languages.

As a team we researched and brainstormed all sorts of words with all kinds of meanings. We put words all over the studio to remind us who we were representing. Words that summed up the group. And there, staring us right in the face was the obvious answer. The name of course, is Pobl (Welsh for 'people'). It’s the perfect mix of short, quirky, intriguing and readable.

Image of a brainstorming session

Sometimes, the needle is actually an elephant sat on top of the haystack.

As with many Welsh words, the word for people can be spelled two ways—Pobl or Pobol. We love the quirkiness and slight awkwardness of Pobl. Because of its unusual spelling we feel it will be adopted by the group as part of their identity, eventually becoming synonymous with the company—instead of simply the meaning of the word.

Images of the Pobl branding

If you need help creating the perfect name for your organisation, get in touch.