Building a cohesive brand to support a charity.

Charity Link Branding, Graphic

As a sponsor for Charity Link, Designeering has provided a range of brand guardianship services. We have evolved the existing logo, introduced a new visual identity and created a range of advertising campaigns for print.

A charity doing vital work

Charity Link is a Leicester charity finding funding and providing essential material help for people in need.

The charity works on the principle that all local people deserve a decent standard of living. A right to adequate food, shelter and the means to keep warm, clean and rested, no matter what crisis, illness, disability or difficulty they may be facing.

Unclear and inconsistent branding

We met Susan McEniff, at the time Charity Link’s director of marketing and fundraising, at a networking event.

Susan was introducing the charity and the Proud Business Supporters Club, for businesses that make regular donations. At the end, she handed out some marketing flyers.

In the presentation, Charity Link had a clear and well-defined vision, but this wasn’t translating to its branding.

Bringing the brand together

Following the event, Designeering became a sponsor for the charity, providing support in the form of brand guardianship. We started by looking at the logo and working on a new visual branding scheme.

In our first meeting with Charity Link, we presented some initial ideas to establish a clear direction for the brand.

We evolved the logo into a design that was simpler and cleaner. New typefaces were recommended to support the ideas of trust and reliability. And we revised the strapline, making it more prominent.

The existing brand colours were used to create two visually distinct sets of marketing materials. Spring green for the public and sky blue for corporate.

We came up with a new name for the charity’s newsletter. ‘Thrive’ is about more than just living, it’s about prospering and succeeding, which fits perfectly with the brand’s vision.

The newsletter would be reformatted as a more portable A5 document, while the corporate documents would switch to a more substantial A4.

Finally, we created a marketing campaign based on the ‘Break glass in case of emergency’ concept. It was designed to illustrate the urgent and basic needs of those people the charity supports.

Setting a clear direction

Since Designeering came on board, there’s a clear way forward. All deliverables now have a clear and consistent aesthetic that reflects the brand’s vision.

It was decided that the evolution of the logo should be gradual. Phase one involved some minor tweaks and streamlining of the colour palette. It will be further simplified in phase two. The evolved logo has appeared on a roller banner and in the charity’s ‘Thrive’ newsletters.

We design and print the ‘Thrive’ newsletter twice annually, with a new issue published in the spring and autumn of each year.

For the Proud Business Supporter Club, we created a new logo and colour scheme. This was applied to a folded flyer and roller banners.

Our advertising campaigns for the charity appeared on Leicester’s bus shelters and in the city’s popular ‘Niche’ business magazine. A Covid-19 version of our advert followed during the pandemic.

Charity Link hosts a yearly 3 Peaks Challenge fundraising event in which participants climb the three highest peaks in North Leicestershire. Designeering supported the event with a new logo and roller banner.

And, on the corporate side, we designed the A4 corporate Impact Review. This annual report gives a breakdown of the charity’s work and achievements.

It’s our intention to continue sponsoring Charity Link, with brand guardian services, for many years to come. More recently, we have redesign Charity Link’s website.

What the client says

Sébastien was very quickly able to get underneath the skin of the brand and presented his creative vision for Charity Link during our first meeting.

The presentation included revising the logo, typefaces, brand coherence and message clarity, while remaining sensitive to the age of the charity and stakeholders involved.

The creatives Designeering produced exceeded our expectations and achieved all objectives. The deadlines we’d agreed were surpassed rather than simply met.

It has been an absolute pleasure to work with Sébastien, he is extremely professional and thoroughly dedicated to his clients.

We envisage a long term working relationship with Designeering and would certainly recommend them to future clients.

Susan McEniff, CEO at Charity Link

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As your brand guardian we’ll take care of all your visual branding needs. We’ll create an instantly recognisable and memorable brand your target audience will love. And we’ll use your branding consistently across all your digital and printed designs.

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