United St. Saviour’s Charity

Background

Founded in 1541, United St Saviour’s is one of London’s longest-standing housing charities. They offer a range of housing support to residents in the Southwark area of London, and they also invest in the local community through their grant-making programme.

The business challenge

When United St Saviour’s approached us in late 2016, they were conscious that their existing branding and website focused too heavily on their connections with the local church, which gave the impression they were a church-based organisation. As a separate entity, they wanted to communicate their modern, forward-thinking, inclusive approach and focus on their mission to improve the Southwark community.

The solution we delivered

To support the charity with its identity challenge, we proposed a complete overhaul of its branding to deliver a modern look and feel, reflective of St Saviour’s forward-thinking and inclusive approach. We conducted a range of brand research tasks to get under the organisation’s skin to create a new brand that is distinctive and memorable. By focusing on the ‘ribbon Thames’ device, we gave their logo a geographical focus that is consistent throughout all of their collateral to create true synergy from one channel to the next.

The branding process involved a series of on-site workshops with their internal team and stakeholders to determine their values and how they wanted to be perceived. We then produced a range of logo concepts in various styles alongside several in-situ print design mock-ups so that the charity could get a feel for how their brand could work in the real world. Once the new branding was approved, we produced a detailed brand guidelines document and accompanying collateral, including popup banners, publications, letterheads, and business cards.

The project’s final phase was the design and build of a completely new custom responsive WordPress website. The new site embodies the client’s mission, vision, core values, value proposition and new branding to deliver a strong online presence that promises to convert long-term.

The results

The new website was launched in 2017 and has successfully elevated the charity’s position as an influential and innovative pillar in the Southwark community. It is often held out as a benchmark by other housing charities and has helped modernise and streamline their housing and grant application processes.