All together now
Rethink Mental Illness
Brand refresh
Helping Rethink define their place in the mental health space.
What we did
Discovery
Testing
Positioning
Messaging
Tone of voice
Visual identity
As the leading charity provider of mental health services in England, Rethink Mental Illness has many moving parts to tie together.
From fundraising, membership and campaigning, to training and support groups, they need to be and say a lot of different things to a lot of different people.
But their brand voice and visual identity felt too formal and cold to speak to all of their audiences in a way that’s engaging, authentic and welcoming, especially for service users.
Over the years, piecemeal updates had also led to a lack of cohesion across the brand as a whole, leaving teams a little lost.
They needed a fresh approach that was memorable, easy to follow and would result in more aligned, consistent and engaging content.
On the visual side, the team didn’t want to radically move away from their logo, but the term ‘mental illness’ was seen as a barrier for people who need support but don’t see themselves as living with a mental illness. They needed a logo that was flexible for all situations, applications and audiences.
Our solution? Some simple small tweaks. Moving the full stop (which had lost all meaning) out of the circle instantly adds more ‘thought’. And a clearer word mark helps with legibility.
The brand’s primary cyan colour was proven inaccessible and so the charity had already naturally moved towards purple – we just made it official. This colour shift instantly helps the charity stand out in a predominately blue mental health space, and develops an accessible colour palette with purpose.
Gradients were introduced to visually represent mental state transitions, acting as a bridge from calm service materials to bold campaigns.
New graphic ‘thought’ shapes were created to subtly reflect different mental states, these shapes then informed the visual identity, being used to create image containers, icons, illustration, and visually linking all brand touch points together in a coherent yet flexible identity.
A flexibly illustration system was designed to make it simple create a diverse range of people.
“On more than one occasion Lark went over and above, which is incredibly rare for an agency. They were professional and lovely to work with, and we have new branding which we are delighted with. We’d recommend Lark to anyone.”
Amanda Thomson, Head of Brand, Communications & Marketing at Rethink
“Lark immediately seemed to get ‘us’,” says Amanda Thomson, Head of Brand, Communications & Marketing at Rethink.
“They understood our need to engage our different audiences with a considered but flexible tone of voice, and the importance of the language we use for describing what we do. They helped us to think about modernising our brand to make it warmer and accessible, whilst ensuring that our longstanding supporters wouldn’t feel we had drifted too far away from the current one.
“Unlike some agencies which can be a bit pushy, they really listened to our needs and offered advice when needed, rather than foisting their ideas upon us.”
