CAFOD

In collaboration with strategy agency Eden Stanley, we worked with the communications team at CAFOD to develop their visual brand to connect with their new strategy and proposition: A better world needs all of us. 

The charity’s previous visual brand was designed in response to their old brand strategy and thus now felt too hard-hitting. The new strategy has been created to evoke a sense of love, energy and compassion, to help turn audience awareness into positive action.

During the audit stage we identified some challenges in using the previous identity. Therefore, in addition to unifying the visual brand and the strategy, our brief was also to simplify the visual elements for more effective implementation, whilst allowing more flexibility to tailor to different users’ needs.

As part of the evolution we created a new iteration of the CAFOD logo. We retained their brand font Montserrat, but have now used a custom cut, which has been softened to bring cohesion between the verbal and visual elements. Stakeholders had commented on legibility issues with the previous logo, so we have ensured the letter ‘O’, which doubles as the charity’s cross symbol, now effectively stands out. 

The symbol now sits within a navy circle, which gives the audience a visual link to ‘a better world’ – the first half of the charity’s new strapline, which forms part of the logo. This circle becomes one of the core graphic devices in the visual brand. 

The other graphic device is the cross – this represents CAFOD’s faith, as well as suggesting expansion and inclusion, which links directly to the second half of the strapline: ‘all of us’.

We created new guidance on how to implement the refreshed visual elements, both for internal stakeholders and external agencies. This included expanding the colour palette with rigorous testing for accessibility, streamlining the amount of fonts in use to improve clarity, and defining principles for photography, illustration and iconography to ensure a more cohesive and welcoming brand for the charity’s audiences.