An “elegant feline form” has been integrated into the wordmark whereas “unique feline touches” function within the bespoke headline font.
Design studio Lukecharles has devised a brand new model identification for UK charity Cats Protection, establishing its “warmth and authority” with bespoke typography and an ownable color palette.
Since its founding in 1927, Cats Protection has labored to rescue and rehome stray, undesirable or homeless cats whereas educating individuals about cats and cat welfare. Lukecharles felt the model had “so much untapped potential” and noticed a chance to “modernise” and showcase its “scale and expertise”.
Cats Protection’s technique was devised to alter individuals’s “understanding of and attitude towards cats”, urging them to study extra about what the charity does to allow them to help it and use its companies, says Lukecharles model technique director Rebecca Walton. The charity’s aim is to “promote positive relationships between cats and people” by way of its model, “preventing cruelty and mistreatment and reducing the need for rehoming” whereas additionally sharing analysis to affect coverage, she provides.
Revising Cats Protection’s messaging was essential, because it had develop into “confusing”, based on the studio. Its new model language centres across the phrase “making a better life for cats, because life is better with cats”.
Lukecharles labored with the charity to develop an extended supporting narrative, together with “a core paragraph or elevator pitch” and a extra detailed set of messaging for use throughout communications, says Walton. She explains how tone of voice tips have been constructed based mostly on the model’s character and new “authoritative positioning”, which invovled “moving away from clichéd cat puns” that got here throughout “amateur or childish”.
The emblem design was impressed by “the dynamic elegance of the feline form”, based on the studio’s artistic director Luke Gifford. Merging the type of the cat into the wordmark creates “an indivisible link with the charity’s cause and delivers an instant connection with anyone who cares for cats”, provides artistic director Charles Taylor.
Cats headline is a bespoke slab-serif designed to be the charity’s headline typeface in collaboration with NaN kind foundry. It seeks to steadiness “warmth and expertise”, because the charity is already perceived to be a “caring brand” however wanted some added authority given its new technique, says Gifford. Taylor notes that the font’s “unique feline touches echo the elegance and playfulness of cats”.
Gifford and Taylor thought that the model’s earlier colors, yellow and blue, have been too “heavily used” inside the animal welfare sector and so Cats Protection wanted a brand new lead color to distinguish it. Cats Protection Purple was chosen to convey “the sophistication of cats” and the charity’s “warmth and authority”, as with the brand new typography, says Gifford.
The supporting palette, which Taylor describes as “intentionally limited”, contains a number of purple hues. He says the charity was beforehand utilizing plenty of totally different colors in communications, making it not “easily recognisable as Cats Protection”, whereas the brand new strategy “will help them stand out and build strong brand associations”.
One problem was reevaluating Cats Protection’s use of images, based on the studio. In the previous, Gifford says it had “struggled to identify a strong and distinctive photography style”, which made the model really feel “disjointed”. Lukecharles really helpful a spread of images approaches appropriate for various functions, “from fundraising to advice and education to campaigns”, says Gifford. To help the images, the studio additionally developed “a consistent and ownable illustration style which delivers a more sophisticated take on the feline form”, he explains.
