Feb 25 2010

The Team Creates New Identity for Parkinson’s Charity

The Team announced today that it has created a new brand for the Parkinson’s Disease Society. From April, the charity will be known as Parkinson’s UK.

Together with Loewy stablemate Prescient, The Team  researched audiences’ perceptions, created a comprehensive brand strategy, produced the charity’s new name and strapline and designed its new logo and visual identity.

The logo is made up of the Parkinson’s UK name and a strapline designed to sum up its personality: ‘Change attitudes. Find a cure. Join us.’ They are shown together on a three-degree angle to illustrate that the charity is moving onwards and upwards.

The wording is made up of the ‘Parkinson’s UK stencil’ - a font designed specifically for the charity to show its active nature. The charity’s main colour is cyan. The only other colours it uses are black and white. The visual identity has been designed to reflect the charity’s brand values: it is short, simple, bold, bright and human.

Another main element of the charity’s new brand is the use of photography of people with Parkinson’s to show that the people for whom it works are at the forefront of its mission. People with Parkinson’s are pictured holding up placards of personal messages such as ‘Together we can beat it’; ‘We’re here to help’; ‘Life goes on’ and ‘A cure cannot wait’.

The Parkinson’s Disease Society employed The Team to create a new brand identity because it felt the public, GPs and other health professionals did not know enough about Parkinson’s or about what the organisation does. It wanted a brand that clarified its vision - to find a cure and improve the lives of everyone affected by Parkinson’s.

Prescient interviewed and held focus groups with the charity’s different audiences and found that everyone explained the society in a different way. People said the name was old-fashioned and the visual identity was conservative and inconsistent.

The research also showed public understanding of Parkinson’s was also not as good as it could be. The disease was commonly associated with elderly people and there was little awareness of many of the different symptoms, other than ’shaking’.

The brand will support the charity’s five-year strategy, which includes raising more than £110m before 2015 to help raise awareness, fund research and find a cure for Parkinson’s.

Dan Dufour, a consultant and charity specialist at The Team, said: “The new brand has been designed to be something that people can be part of - it shows an active, passionate and determined charity, driven by people coming together.

“This wasn’t just a visual identity and logo - it has helped the charity define its vision, mission and core values to influence the way the organisation behaves and conducts its business.

“It was crucial to involve supporters and people with Parkinson’s in developing the new identity because it is their brand - their involvement in every step of the process has made this project incredibly rewarding and unique.”

Steve Ford, chief executive of the Parkinson’s Disease Society, said: “I am really excited by our new identity - Parkinson’s UK. It highlights our commitment to change attitudes to Parkinson’s, fund cutting-edge research to find a cure and inspire more people to support us.

“One of our strengths is our people - our enthusiastic supporters and committed staff. We wanted Parkinson’s UK to be a movement - something everyone could be involved in. The new brand will give people affected by Parkinson’s a stronger voice and make sure that everyone know that because we are here, no one has to face Parkinson’s alone.”