Brief
We were tasked by Field design to re-design and re-brand the Sheffield Hospitals Charity logo. Sheffield Hospitals Charity currently raise 2.5 million pounds per annum for the 5 Sheffield hospitals. They are hoping that a complete makeover will attract new investors and supporters and are forecasting a 50% increase in money raised over the next five years. The current logo is outdated and has been abused by in house designers over the years. The current logo is also similar to that of the Sheffield Children’s Hospital logo and colours. The new logo needs to be completely separate from any other Sheffield charity so that there is no confusion about who they are, what they do and what they stand for. The brief that was set to us by Field design stipulated specific content. We were to use at least 6 colours in our logo, use the tag line “We care about life” and in some way try to represent some aspect of Sheffield. We were also asked to look at how this would roll out as graphic elements within the hospitals as art work, also how the logo would be used on business cards and stationery websites etc.
Our target audience is anyone from the general public right through to local businesses and beyond.
Organising project deadlines
- Week 1: Research other charities and organisations similar to SHC. Begin rough drafts of logo concepts.
- Week 2: Development of concepts. Refine Initial Ideas and concepts for the logo.
- Week 3 and 4: Research Way-finder graphics and begin to develop ideas based on findings. Begin to incorporate these ideas into own project
- Week 5: Halfway crit
- Week 6: Interior branding ideas and mock-ups.
- Week 7: Website development.
- Week 8: Brand guidelines.
Week 1:
The Sheffield Hospital Charity logo began life as a simple graphic icon with text on a white background.
It quickly became evident that a yellow logo set against a white background didn’t work very well and it was quickly updated (probably by someone in-house.) the background was changed into a blue square to help the logo stand out and the text changed to white.
The problem with this now was that it held the same colour scheme as one of its umbrella partners the children’s hospital charity.
This obviously creates some concern where funders are concerned and also the general public. There needs to be a clear division between the two separate charities to eliminate any confusion and also to create individual identities that in no way mirror one another. Further to this, the Weston Park Hospital Cancer Charity also have their own logo (well two actually) just to confuse things further.
The Royal Hallamshire, Northern General and Charles Clifford Dental Hospital, however, have no identity whatsoever.
I began to look at other hospital and charity logos to see how they presented themselves to the public.
With the exception of a couple of logos that are well established such as the Great Ormond Street Hospital and Oxfam, it seems that charity logos really have no real identity. Generic images are repeatedly used by these organisations which dilutes any identity they are trying to convey. Clip-art is often used which is very unprofessional in the design world along with font choices that fail to bolster the identity of the charities.
For the Sheffield Hospitals Charity logo, It was suggested that we try to find a way to represent the city of Sheffield in the logo, one idea was to use seven hills in the design. I think that this is a good way forward in the design of the logo and I began by making the first concept drafts. I didn’t sketch anything at this stage as the concept purely consisted of circles. My first draft consists of three hills and the sun in the shape of a shield. I chose to use the shape of the shield to represent safety and trust. It was suggested in the brief that we use at least 6 colours in the logo. There was also to be a tagline incorporated into the logo, but for the time being I really just want to concentrate more on the graphic element.
I looked at how the logo would present in black and white and was happy with the outcome so I progressed further with my concept.
We were informed in the brief that the logo would need to work across various media platforms so the possibility of a square logo would probably work best for this. We were also informed not to use any background colour. I decided to trim the logo and lose the bottom portion, I also looked at how this would work in different colours.
Happy with how the logo was progressing, I began to tweak this further. I realised that each line could represent a hill, so I tweaked the logo to represent this. I also introduced an accent colour into the rays of the sun. My idea was that each of the five hospitals could be represented by a different colour.
At this point, I decided to submit my first draft to the design team at Field to receive feedback. From here I would begin my second stage of design drafts.
Week 2:
The feedback I received from field instructed me to continue with this style and try to further refine and simplify my design. This time I began by sketching new ideas and rendering them using Illustrator to establish what worked and what I deemed unfit for purpose.
I simplified further my original logo and ended up with a logo that consisted as just lines as you can see in #9 of the logo sheet above. It is important to begin to simplify a logo by taking away as much as possible from the original concept but still keeping the key elements that make the image. By doing this you can make the logo unique but also memorable which is a good way to begin branding your logo.
Again I decided to use an accent colour to represent each hospital.
Week 3 & 4:
Wayfinder Graphics.
I have decided to have a look at making some way-finder graphics for use in the hospitals. I wanted to use the lines from the logo and incorporate them into subtle graphics that could be used on walls or floors.
Week 5: Halfway Crit.
Halfway through our project, we received feedback from Katie who is the CEO of Field Design in Sheffield. I was advised to begin looking at other ways of introducing graphic elements of the logo into the hospital and begin to brand the project. Also, it would help to look at font choices and make clear guidelines on their use as a corporate ID. I decided that I would move away from the Way-finder aspect of this project and focus now on how to implement the feedback I had received. I began by looking at the logo again and making committed changes to both the colour palette and font. I would then begin to develop the brand throughout the interior and show stationary and advertising design.
The Logo:
I decided to change the colours of the logo and also introduce a 6th design that would umbrella the whole project. Below are my first drafts followed by the changes and reasons for these changes.
I was advised to change the colours of the “Sheffield Hospitals Charity” to one colour and also to swap the colours around in the tag line.
From here I decided that the greens could completely go and make each individual icon one colour for each hospital, I would then introduce a 6th logo made from the colour palette of the other 5 logos.
I decided that the Charles Clifford logo should be pink because it is a dental hospital and the pink colour represents the colour of your gums. The Western Park logo is purple because it already has a logo that uses these colours. I chose to use green for Jessops because it represents new life, leaving just the two remaining hospitals. I also looked at using multiple colours for each hospital, however, I decided that this would be to complex and could get lost in its use in years to come as in-house designers would not follow the brand palette guidelines.
Week 6:
Interior Branding, Signage & Stationery.
My vision is to use the brand colour palette in a subtle way throughout each hospital by bringing splashes of colour into rooms in a minimal way. This can be achieved by introducing the colours into soft furnishings such as seating, curtains and blinds. Floor and wall decals can be used in larger areas as well as statement walls. Also smaller subtleties such as screensavers on computers or trims on desks and lighting can carry the brand colours.
Signage.
Stationery.
Medium.
A different medium can be used depending on the purpose of the finished item. For example, foil stamp for VIP invitations or embroidery on clothing.
Clothing.
Brand colours are used in the clothing in full as the t-shirt or hoodie colour or also as part of the design.
Apps.
Apps could be developed for phones or computers.
Vehicle.
Fleets of promotional vehicles can be used for charity events or throughout the city.
Week 7:
Website Development.
I wanted to keep the website clean and minimal while at the same time bringing good use of colour from the brand pallet into the design. I also wanted to bring in the line work from the logo into the page designs so as to keep a good visual identity throughout the website without over complicating the design. I achieved this by bordering/framing pictures with brand colours and using colour blocks to highlight areas of interest on the website.
Week 8:
Brand Guidelines.
Critical Evaluation.
I found this module to be quite challenging in parts. The logo design process was very easy for me as i have past experience in this area, however, the branding part was something I have never done before so I was a little unsure what exactly was expected from me and how much. At the beginning of the brief we were told to use a minimum of six colours in the logo which went against everything I know about logo design. After looking at the branding part of the module I was thankful for the varied colour choices I now had and I can see the benefit of using so many colours on such a large project.
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