Fresh new start
Open Age
Brand refresh
An energising boost to attract new audiences.
What we did
Discovery
Positioning
Tone of voice
Vision and mission
Visual brand
Brand guidelines
Roll-out materials
Open Age empowers people to thrive after 50, creating opportunities for learning, socialising, fitness and fun at their centres in West London.
When the charity contacted us, they were at a turning point in their journey - they wanted to build more centres for communities nationwide. But although the charity is joyful and uplifting, their existing brand was feeling tired.
The charity wanted to appeal to everyone over 50, but without losing their warm, friendly and individual approach.
Challenge accepted!
“Lark worked their magic and supported Open Age to bring our brand to life in a way which is both authentic and highly engaging. They are easy to work with, thoughtful and creative – a rare combination. Thank you.”
Emma Foulds, CEO
Discovery
As always, we started by listening and learning. We held workshops and consultations with internal teams, trustees, and stakeholders. This enabled us to pin down where they are now and where they want to be. And, most importantly, we helped them figure out what was most important to their brand.
Visually, there was lots to preserve: their colours, bold mark and keyhole device. But verbally, they needed help to work out what they wanted to say - and how to say it.
“Lark was so good at workingwith our tight budget and ambitious brief: keeping us on track and making the most of every penny. Time and care spent getting to know us meant fewer revisions allowing us to get more for our money. And they delivered a very rare thing: a brand update that everyone loves.”
Lorna Schofield, Fundraising Manager – Community and Individual Giving
Verbal
Editor Roz says: “Open Age has been changing the way people think about ageing for the last 30 years; it’s not about ageing well, but living well - for longer. But their core message was getting buried in all their communications telling people about the vast range of services they offer.
We took a step back and looked at all the activities, exercise programmes and support they provide for local communities. And they fell into 3 clear categories - meet (a cuppa), move (fitness) and learn (courses).
‘Meet. Move. Learn.’ also avoids any mention of ageing or tired tropes about life continuing after retirement; exactly the optimistic message Open Age wants to get across.
Once we knew how to accurately describe what they do, the rest of the brand’s positioning and tone of voice easily followed.”
Thanks to Lorna, Emma and all at Open Age for the fantastic project – was a pleasure!
Visual
Senior Designer Scott says: “Like many rebrands we work on, the challenge was to modernise and expand on an existing brand, while maintaining key familiar elements for existing audiences.
We focused on making the brand more functional, accessible, and impactful – and better built for digital.
The signature Open Age yellow preserves brand equity, but we built an entirely new supporting palette to inject warmth and energy into their comms.
Every colour pairing and typographic choice was rigorously tested against WCAG accessibility guidelines to ensure that the visually impaired or older members of the community face zero barriers when engaging with the brand.
And the existing keyhole device forms the base of our library of custom illustrations and framing shapes, ensuring that – even when the logo isn't present – every piece of content feels like Open Age: a consistent, ownable brand language.”
Roll-out
To get the internal team going, we created a starter-kit set of materials including social posts, a donation form, posters, and a leaflet.
The new Open Age brand is now ready to grow with the charity as they reach even more communities across the UK.
