Make Your Own Medieval Mark

Join designer and researcher Darren Leader for a hands-on creative workshop, exploring personal stories as inspiration to design your own medieval mark. 

In medieval times, Norwich was an international trading centre with merchants’ marks — precursors of modern logos — stamped onto goods and carved into buildings. Discover how weavers, dyers, brewers and merchants applied fascinating trademarks of geometric design and ancient symbolism to represent their identity and expertise.

Workshop participants will contemplate their personal story, profession or family heritage to inspire and make their own signature sign to take home.

Afterwards, Darren Leader will recreate all the resulting marks as vector graphics. Participants could use their mark on email signatures, social media profiles, and even display the mark outside their home as a house mark.

During the workshop, you will: 

• See examples of medieval personal identity expressed as graphic form and how an individual’s mark communicated meaning without written language 
• Discover symbolic ancient signs and why they captivated medieval minds  
• Intuitively choose the elements that represent you
•  Make a mark coded with detail of your own life
•  Share your medieval-styled mark, reveal its significance, and observe the difference and storytelling inherent in others marks

Darren Leader is the author of Logo Rewind: Trademarks of Medieval Norwich, winner of the History and Tradition Award at East Anglian Book Awards 2024.