Bilingual naming and brand identity: our approach
Why bilingual design is harder than it looks

 

By Guto Evans, Elfen August 2026
 

There is a common assumption that bilingual brand identity is a translation job. You agree on the name in one language, hand it to a translator, and you have two names. You design the English logo, then adapt it for Welsh. You write the copy, then get it translated.

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This is not how it works. And agencies that treat it this way produce identities that look bilingual on the surface but feel hollow. Or worse, feel like the Welsh is an afterthought.

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The challenges start with the words themselves. Welsh words are, on average, significantly longer than their English equivalents. A company name that sits cleanly on one line in English may wrap, compress, or break the grid entirely in Welsh. Cymdeithas is one word. It is nine letters longer than "community." Multiply that across a full communications system: signage, reports, digital, wayfinding. The visual implications are considerable. Typography choices that work in English must work under greater typographic pressure in Welsh. Hierarchy, spacing, and layout all need to absorb the load.

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Then there is the question of cultural register. A name that carries warmth and authority in Welsh may sound flat or generic in English, and vice versa. Welsh has a distinct emotional vocabulary: associations rooted in geography, community, and the particular weight that the language carries as a living cultural marker, not just a second official option. Getting register right in both languages requires knowing both cultures, not just both grammars.

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There is also the legal and regulatory context. Welsh Language Standards bind a growing number of public bodies to treat Welsh and English on equal terms across all communications. Not sequentially, and not with Welsh as the smaller-type version. The Welsh Language Commissioner actively monitors compliance. Organisations that get this right from the start avoid expensive retrospective corrections. Those that underestimate it commission bilingual identities that then need to be redesigned.

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How Elfen works

Our process for bilingual naming and brand identity does not begin with a brief in one language. It begins with both.

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When we approach a naming project, whether for a place, an organisation, or a product, we work across both languages simultaneously from the earliest stage of development. A candidate name is not tested in English and then adapted into Welsh. It is assessed in Welsh from the outset: how it sounds, what it connotes, whether it already carries meaning in Welsh that might conflict with the intended positioning. A name with an unintended meaning in Welsh is not recoverable through design. It has to be caught before it is named.

Research is the foundation. Before we develop naming routes, we understand the landscape: the sector the organisation operates in, the communities it serves, what already exists in the naming space, and what associations the Welsh language brings to that context. For place names, this includes historical and geographic research. Welsh place-naming carries layers of meaning that inform what an authentic name should feel like.

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Stakeholder engagement is built into the process, not added at the end as a sign-off step. This matters particularly in Welsh-language and bilingual contexts, where names belong to communities, not just brands. For Tŷ Pawb, the gallery and community hub in Wrexham, we ran workshops that brought together local residents alongside a wider community: English speakers, and people who spoke more than one language and could test how the name landed across different linguistic registers. Before launch, we worked with a local paper to run an article presenting the name in context and inviting public opinion. That kind of pre-launch community testing is not about gaining approval for a decision already made. It is about finding out whether a name holds up in the hands of the people it belongs to, and refining it if it does not.

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On identity projects, we work to a principle of visual equity: the Welsh and English versions of a mark should carry equal visual weight, not the same physical space. Achieving that requires deliberate decisions about type scale, spacing, and how the two languages relate on the page or screen. It is design work, not adaptation work.

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What commissioners need to know before they start
If you are commissioning a bilingual naming or brand identity project, there are three things worth knowing before you brief an agency.

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Start with both languages in scope. A project that begins in English and adds Welsh at the end will cost more and take longer than one that treats both as primary from day one. The Welsh version is not a deliverable at the end of the project. It is a design constraint from the beginning.

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Allow time for stakeholder engagement. In Welsh-language contexts especially, a naming process that skips community or stakeholder involvement risks producing a name that the people it represents do not feel is theirs. That is a reputational and practical risk, particularly for public bodies and place-making projects.

Understand the standards that apply to your organisation. Welsh Language Standards, sector-specific guidelines, and Welsh Government procurement requirements all have implications for how a bilingual identity is implemented. An experienced bilingual agency will know which standards apply to your sector and will design to meet them. This is not bureaucratic box-ticking. It is the difference between an identity that stands up to scrutiny and one that generates complaints before it launches.

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Plan your brand assets bilingual from the start. Signage, digital, stationery, reports, social: all of it needs to work in both languages at the same time. A system designed with this in mind will be more coherent and less expensive than one retrofitted for bilingual use after the fact.

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Some of the work
Elfen has been working in bilingual naming and brand identity for nearly three decades. Among the projects that reflect this practice:

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Welsh Language Commissioner. A modern identity for the body responsible for promoting and protecting the use of Welsh, applied consistently across all communications. The identity needed to carry institutional authority while remaining accessible and contemporary.

Cynefin. Naming and brand identity for a housing association working across north Wales and Powys. Cynefin is a Welsh concept without a direct English translation: it refers to the relationship between a person and their place of belonging. The name itself reflects the community the organisation serves and the language they live in.

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Tŷ Pawb. Naming and brand identity for a gallery and community hub in Wrexham, developed from a space under a multi-storey car park. The name, Welsh for "everyone's house," needed to signal openness and community ownership in both languages while working as a distinctive cultural brand.

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Bro Tathan. Naming and full brand development for a business and enterprise hub in the Vale of Glamorgan. A Welsh place-name for a cutting-edge site, carrying the geography and the ambition together.

Talk to us

If you are approaching a bilingual naming or brand identity project and want to talk through what it involves, we are straightforward to contact. Use the contact form, or email us at post@elfen.co.uk