The Wombles get a suitably charming rebrand courtesy of How&How

The agency How&How has made a name for itself creating visual worlds for sustainable brands, like Freetree, an e-commerce tree planting app; and Biozeroc, an environmental alternative to concrete. It’s also a registered B Corp. So the team couldn’t believe their luck when an email landed in their inbox in April of last year from some of the most beloved advocates of sustainability: The Wombles.

For How&How, the rebrand project was (obviously) a no-brainer. Not only did the project align with their values, but for the young agency (it’s just celebrated its fourth birthday), it would also be their first chance to work with a massive household name. “We always thought it was going to be a whizzy tech brand,” says Cat How, the studio’s founder and creative director. “But then we realised: oh my god, is our first household name going to be The Wombles? We would never have predicted it!”

Originally created by Elisabeth Beresford in 1968 for a series of children’s books, The Wombles were inspired by her walks on Wimbledon Common. From their burrow on the Common, the creatures could often be found making use of the rubbish they collected, creating an immediate affinity with the then-burgeoning environmental movement. In the mid-1970s the BBC brought the loveable fluffy characters to the small screen with stop motion, launching them to stardom.

With such a wide fan base and clear visual stamp on British culture, one of the biggest challenges for How&How was how to go about creating a look that maintained their classic charm, while still giving the brand a much-needed refresh. A lot of time was spent defining what a Womble actually is. “They’ve had so many different iterations over the years – their designs are so eclectic!” Cat explains. This was helped along in large part by The Wombles team giving the agency access to their entire back catalogue.

When it came to the wordmark, the team wanted to align closely with the “chunky slab” original, and so they opted for Monokrom foundry’s Nordvest as a base. “Its horizontals are slightly thicker than its verticals,” says Cat. “This subtle reversal of the traditional weighting of thick and thin strokes gives it an odd playfulness – a unique tone and texture which we thought was perfect for the eclecticism of The Wombles.” Alongside the illustrator Remi Sorbet, they also developed a Wombles icon in three different sizes of fidelity, to be used across merchandise alongside the “W” symbol. Everything that makes up these graphic elements – colour palettes, textures and more – are all drawn from the original source material in the back catalogue.

All of these graphic elements are tied together by the illustrated Wombles who we find throughout the identity. Brimming with charm, the characters have that retro, hand-drawn feel that’s so core to the Wombles, yet they still nod to some of the cleaner-cut digitised children’s illustration styles of today. They were designed and animated by How&How’s senior creative Eilidh Reid; it was her first project at How&How, and the team even held back the start date of the project for her arrival, as they knew she was the perfect person for the job. What really made Eilidh’s characters was the “systematic” way she approached the brief, says Cat, “analysing the Wombles ‘nose droop’ levels to various degrees; or exactly where eyes or mouths should be placed.” She continues: “There was real rigour to her approach, but then sheer expressiveness in the characters’ creation. The perfect combination!”

Seeing the characters come to life, as well as systemising and digitising the brand to make it more cohesive, was a “joy”, says Cat, as well as being a fun project for the whole of the How&How team to boot. “It made me realise how much I love my job,” says Cat. “Thanks Wombles.”