Student-designed logo for Chesham Charter to be rolled out across Bucks
A logo created by a BNU student to represent Chesham’s arts heritage will soon be seen across Buckinghamshire, following an intense professional pitching process.
Five Graphic Design students were asked to develop logo concepts for a community arts initiative led by Chesham Town Council – the Chesham Charter – which celebrates the town’s creativity, heritage and community.
A second-round presentation held on Friday 24 April saw the students present their refined designs to the panel, after acting on feedback from an earlier session. Students returned with updated logos and a series of mock-ups showing how their logos could be applied across a variety of settings, including signage, window decals and promotional materials throughout the county.
Chesham Town Clerk Louise Hayday said the revised work: “demonstrated clear progress, with stronger attention to usability, identity and adaptability,” adding that the final decision would be a difficult one for the panel.
The panel will now consider all the designs before selecting a winner in the coming weeks. The chosen logo will be rolled out across Chesham and adopted by organisations and businesses signed up to the Charter.
Speaking about the project, Graphics course leader Chris Allen said the brief originated through a chat with the council and was seen to be especially suitable as it could be set into a professional practice module. “We put it out to students as a live brief and embedded it into teaching, so it aligned with learning how to present to clients and work on real projects,” he said.
He added that the scale of the project made it particularly valuable: “It’s quite a big deal – the winning design will be used across the town and by partner businesses, so it’s fantastic exposure and real-world experience for them.”
Reflecting on the students’ development, he said: “They took the panel’s first round feedback really seriously and approached it in a very professional way, showing how their ideas developed, which is exactly how it works in industry. You don’t just present a logo – you take the client through the thinking behind it.”
Despite common nerves around presenting, he said the group performed strongly: “‘It can be the case that creatives don’t particularly like presenting, but you wouldn’t know that from how they delivered – it was impressive.”
The Chesham Charter branding project forms part of the town’s wider cultural vision. At its centre is the Chesham Cultural Plan, a community-driven roadmap to champion local creativity.
Like its neighbours High Wycombe and Slough, Chesham has recently submitted a bid to become the UK Town of Culture 2028, with £3 million going to the winning town.
