Transforming a functional and clinical mental health service into an inviting, warm and relatable experience where everyone can do well together.

The first was to build a brand that staff could believe in, with cultural values and beliefs that fundamentally resonated with them.

The second, was to take the organisation out of the shadows, showcasing what makes them great, and amplifying the valuable, anchoring role it plays in the wider community and health ecosystem.

Our journey to build a new narrative, visual and verbal identity for the Trust, including a new name, built on work they’d already done, but reached further through workshops and interviews with staff, users, partners, GPs and commissioners.

We found a brand that wasn’t understood or trusted, whose purpose and role was too vague to be effective, leaving it to be defined by negative news and experiences. A brand that people struggled to believe in.

But a sense of hopeful ambition, and a belief that leadership were committed to meaningful change offered us a starting point to work from. Staff especially needed to feel this, yet the reality was that the working culture made change feel unachievable and unbelievable However, the golden thread connecting all the audiences together was a commitment to making a difference to people’s lives. This brand therefore had to have patients, staff and partners at its core.

The central idea needed to connect multiple audiences – staff, senior leaders, patients, families, partners, stakeholders and commissioners. But most importantly it needed to convince staff that their welfare and well-being was paramount.

So we developed a story that put staff at the centre of this wider ecosystem, aligning their contribution with the purpose of the organisation and the impact on the wider community, empowering them to deliver the kind of care patients deserve. We distilled this into three words – ‘Doing Well Together’ – the big idea that lies at the heart of the brand.

Relatable, understandable and achievable the new brand language demonstrates compassion, encourages curiosity and challenge and focuses on the act of caring and listening. It was a significant shift for the brand which had been dominated by language based on performance and accountability, at a time when resources, staff and support were continually stretched.

Visually we wanted to overcome the way that mental health services can feel fragmented and used the idea of a transformation; transforming lives, and communities and enabling easier access to the right mental health support. The use of patterns (referred to as ‘stitching’), combined with photography creates a common thread that is human, open and approachable, and moves away from the often sterile, posed NHS photography to become something more honest.

We used ownable colours, introducing a green to work with “NHS” blue adding themes of growth, health, and harmony.

Yellow adds a pop of interest to grab attention. The use of illustrations provides more approachable and better options to visualize some of the more complex issues of mental health.

The result? A brand identity that unifies and empowers staff showcasing the Trust as a place where everyone can and wants to ‘do well together’. Showcasing Kent and Medway’s mental health service as a place that recognises the complexity of mental health that both patients and staff must navigate daily.

The commitment to incorporate this identity has been unprecedented for such a large organisation. HR, recruitment, internal staff platforms and appraisal frameworks are being reworked to reflect and support a culture of caring, inclusiveness, curiosity and confidence right across all levels. Translated through behaviours that all staff can work towards. The team has an identity that is not only relatable but achievable, no matter where they start from, because equity and equality are paramount for the Trust to be able to achieve the organisational goals and ambitions it has set for itself.

To wrap this all up we had to solve the name conundrum, working within NHS guidelines to give them a stripped back name that clearly describes what they do.

The final identity is approachable, using open and soft graphics, and accessible, meeting AAA standards.