Project Synopsis
CHAPLAINE is a holistic project. It came from the need to create but the desire to not go with the standard practice of the time - which looked like monetising and making content of everything you do. We felt tired of that and actually wanted something that felt a bit more real and honouring to our values as people. So where was the space to be genuine?
We needed space as a married couple to not always 'be on' for building something online, but able to have one another first and foremost for our relationship. CHAPLAINE first of all gave us a clear space to go into and leave behind after the work was done. Healthy boundaries. That's what good intentional branding can do - it can give your life back!
Achieving this was hard though as it required a leap, aesthetically, and the courage to go completely different from our own inclinations, or what had been the usual form prior to this big upheaval. The idea of purity and separateness informed the tone for mood boarding. We emerged with an 'ethereal voyager' synonymous with an enchanting white horse, as early drafts of brand direction would have it.
To get on with the birthing of all these ideas and values, the practice looked like collaborating with our dear friend Mary of MANTLE on the wardrobe to be ready for a photoshoot and filming process. It also looked like working with another dear friend Chinyere on the 'soft peach' grading and B&W imagery in the shoots.
Equipped with a mood board and a field of horses we set to create the first visual identity.
We incorporated this aesthetic into the songwriting which we still wanted to explore and create room for to build out a musical arm of the brand. This was a great way to create space that could grow and adapt as we became increasingly clear about what we wanted to become and feel permission to do.
