Stroke Association
Leading the fight against stroke
Challenge
Every year, around 150,000 people in the UK have a stroke. That’s one person every five minutes, making stroke the third most common cause of death in the UK.
The Stroke Association was providing amazing experiences to thousands of stroke survivors through its wide-ranging services. However, it was only helping half of all survivors and wanted to do more.
With a renewed purpose to lead the fight against stroke, they wanted to be seen as everyone’s ally in stroke. Our job was to help the charity get the recognition it deserved.
In 2018, we revisited the brand to make it feel more human and compassionate so that the charity could engage with a much wider audience and provide greater differentiation, cut-through and emotional impact.
Process
To capture their internal drive for a more confident outward voice, we developed a brand and identity which reflected their fighting spirit. ‘Taking action against stroke’ became the catalyst behind the new identity.
More recently, we helped the charity move on from its current “Conquering Stroke” brand positioning for greater differentiation, cut-through and emotional impact.
Following research, we created a new brand strategy (Life Champions) as well as optimise the creative spectrum for full impact across customer journeys.
Solution
The original brand strategy ‘Taking action against stroke’ was the catalyst for the new identity. To capture this internal drive for a more confident outward voice, we developed a brand identity that reflected their fighting spirit.
In 2018, we evolved the brand to align with their new brand strategy, Life Champions. The identity was given more flex to reach three core audiences — supporters, professionals and beneficiaries. The result is a brand that brings hope, humanity and spirit to the customer journey.
Role
Creative Lead – creative direction, concept, art direction, design, guidelines
Awards
DBA Bronze for Best Rebrand over £100k, 2014
© Created at The Team
Central to the identity is a confidence in their writing style, brought to life with a specially commissioned headline font called ‘Action’. The font was created by holding a collaborative workshop where we invited the client and colleagues to write a variety of words with a paintbrush, a technique commonly used to help rehabilitate stoke survivors.
The finished font was created by Dalton Maag and consists of two font styles, each specifically created for their respective usage environments. All lowercase characters have three variants to provide a smooth, natural connection to the adjoining letter. This also creates variation within the style, reflecting actual handwriting.
A graphic system of expressive paint shapes echo the key emotive states of stroke recovery — humanity, spirit and hope.
