Charities get professional and lose their edge. Don’t they?
Question
Best known for its annual Christmas Appeal, Crisis is a high-profile UK national charity that fights homelessness and empowers homeless people to transform their lives.
Like other leading charities, Crisis has in recent years adopted a far more professional approach to fund-raising and lobbying – which inevitably has meant behaving and communicating in a rather more "corporate" style. So how could they ensure their brand would continue to embody the nimble, defiant, instinctively risk-taking ethos that defined the charity in the first place?
Answer
Our first job was to help Crisis refine a single core
belief: a commitment to focusing on the individual,
and to a radical and disruptive approach to achieving their objectives.
Then, following a review of existing communications,
we developed an improved visual identity and guidelines, specifically designed to reflect and reinforce that core belief. Most notably, the charity's attention-demanding name became a distinctive new logo that positively drips disruption and defiance.
Impact
An easily understood idea, powerfully and consistently expressed, can play a hugely valuable role in the growth and development of an organisation. With a five year
plan now in place, and the brand foundations firmly established, Crisis is expanding its operations nationwide – as well as making an impact with cultural events like the Crisis Hidden Gigs.
And we're pleased to say our updated visual identity is proving both easy to use and highly effective. We – and other agencies – have been able to deliver better campaigns and argue the case for change in a way
that
is persuasively professional, yet without
pulling any punches.
