Charity for Civil Servants

The first port of call

The Charity for Civil Servants offers services from financial support to physical wellbeing, mental resilience and bereavement support. Despite the growing need for support amongst civil servants, past and present, the charity was struggling to achieve cut through with its core audience, with many seeking help from other service providers ahead of them. They wanted to be the first port of call.   

For whatever happens

We simplified their name by dropping the “the” to create a simpler, clearer mark. Humanity needed to be plugged into every aspect of the brand, as it had previously come across as corporate and organisational. The new strapline ‘For whatever happens’ communicates the essence of being on hand, whenever need arises. The logo was redesigned through a simple, imperfectly handrawn wordmark.

A confident tone of voice

Repositioning the charity as the first port of call for all civil servants required a tone of voice with confidence. It also needed to reflect the world of the people the charity supports. This meant striking a balance between gravitas, and a down-to-earth, warm and non-nonsense tone, avoiding lofty, organisational or cold language. Humour and playfulness allowed us to communicate and cut through with character where appropriate.

Typography & illustration

Bringing such a human tone of voice to life needed a playful and human typographic approach. Handmade fonts allow executions that are purely typographic to carry enough visual interest on their own while ensuring the brand feels human and not organisational. ​

Keeping human emotion at the heart of the brand idea, the visual identity needed to be distinctive to stand out against competitors. Illustrator Hattie Clark provided us with a unique, emotive style that stands out against the usual photography-heavy style favoured by charities. The illustrations allowed human emotion to be amplified through visual metaphors, such as the anxiety “scribble” in the chest.