Community-minded network operator and ISP Lightning Fibre is undertaking a major infrastructure upgrade in Eastbourne, Hastings, Hailsham and Heathfield. It is laying a brand new ‘full fibre’ broadband network which will eventually reach almost every home and business. Connecting its street cabinets directly to modems using fibre optic cables, its network promises to be both hyper-reliable and hyper-fast. With Lightning Fibre’s service, you can watch content in 4K, while everyone else in the house can also get online without a hitch.

Unlike other internet service providers, Lightning Fibre does not use BT’s old phone lines with slow copper cable, instead it is installing its own 100% fibre broadband and offering great-value packages starting from 100Mbs upload and download. It also boasts a responsive, local customer service team based in East Sussex and has pledged to never increase its prices during a contract term. How best then, could this socially responsible organisation reach the families and businesses for whom its service has so much to offer? Having worked with me on the Brighton Chamber of Commerce website, Lightning Fibre’s marketing manager Rob Reaks asked me to create character designs to make his company’s online presence more personal.

Distinctive characters are fantastic for building strong brand associations as well as guiding users through an enjoyable and engaging digital experience. With this in mind, I created the Lightning Fibre family, starting with Freddy Fibre, a Lightning Fibre engineer and Barbara Broadband, mother and owner of a boutique bakery and including such similarly relatable characters as high school student Olivia Optic and single mum Isla Internet. Together with their family, they are helping ensure that Lightning Fibre speaks to its intended audience, showing them how it can meet their diverse digital needs and creating an appealing and informative brand narrative.