CONTEXT

Being a newly formed Physiotherapy service, Sussex MSK Health were keen to establish a distinct identity to help solidify their presence, unite staff from across Sussex, and create a recognisable entity for patients. Being an NHS service, the identity needed to align with the national identity guidelines. Sussex MSK Health is committed to providing patient centred, personalised, & de-medicalised care. With a focus on community outreach and public behaviour change.

STRATEGY

Collaboration with senior leadership, staff, & patient representatives established a complex group of values ranging from a warm, calm feel – to human, supportive connections – to professional, expert authority. Research into local & national perception of the NHS revealed a connection to the professional & trust elements whilst exposing a signficant disconnect with the more human, friendly, supportive elements of these values. It was clear there remained a gulf of opportunity to engage more emotively & create an identity that retained a healthcare feel without the negative aspects associated with the traditional usage of that imagery & language.

SCOPE

Brand Identity
Visual Identity
Logo
Brand Guidelines

To support recognition an icon was developed that could be used as a logo & graphic device across all media (this was subsequently expanded into multiple related graphic devices) The logo traces the lattice of fibres within a muscle, guarenteeing a healthcare feel & referencing the services Physiotherapy function whilst its abstract form allowed for interpretations of ‘people’, ‘community’, ‘multi-area’, ‘humanness’, etc.

As noted in NHS England’s 2015 research, Blue is the main recognised colour of the NHS, a fact this palette leans heavily on using it as a base/background tone alongside the more typical white.

NHS Warm Yellow #2 was chosen as the primary accent colour. Yellow is recognised fastest by the human eye (hence its use in hazard signage), this allows the service’s media to stand out in crowded community & clinical spaces whilst also providing a positive warm tone amongst the colder blue & white of the predefined NHS palette.

Elements including naturalistic photography, reduced formal grammar & punctuation, and a custom handwritten font further expand on the ‘human touch’ presented by the graphic imagery.

Comprehensive brand guidelines were developed to ensure the in-house communications team had full control of the identity, ensuring all future pieces remain on brand, aligned to NHS guidelines, and appropriately accessible (not all pages shown below).