Project

Talbot House exists to improve the lives of parents and carers of people with learning disabilities. A registered charity and drop-in centre, the recent move to a purpose built support centre prompted the trustees to approach Creative Vein to completely overhaul the charity’s branding. The project was to include new literature (stationery, business cards, leaflets, fact sheets, posters), new signage and a new content managed (CMS) website, designed and built by Creative Vein but easy to update by Talbot House’s own staff. 

Creative

Like most charities, Talbot House has a wide target audience: parents and carers, professionals, sponsors, volunteers and the staff themselves. As well as engaging people already involved, the charity’s aim was to attract the potential audience too, people who could be sponsors, volunteers and service users. In particular, Talbot House wanted to persuade more men to use their services.

Existing marketing material was no longer covering all the messages or reaching out to this wider audience. In design terms it was also very out of date - primed for a Creative Vein transformation, we were eager to get started!

Our new look for Talbot House started with a very emotive logo including iconic heart and home imagery. The treatment was hand-sketched, with vibrant pastel colours, to give softness to the brand and evoke the idea of family and children. The main colour, a vibrant blue, conveys the brand as a professional organisation ready to partner with the business community or public sector. 

We expanded the brand identity with a library of illustrated characters, designed to be friendly, visually exciting and versatile. This conveys that Talbot House is about people, a message confirmed with extensive use of people photography in the literature and website, from staff and trustees to the families helped. 

Providing information was designed to be clear and compelling to any reader, with headlines like “Where your money goes”, “Claire’s Story”, “what can we do for YOU?” and “Fundraising Ideas”. 

The website is also designed to convey a wealth of information with great clarity, with top menu items like “What we do”, “What you can do”. The CMS design allows the charity to make text and photo changes without incurring costs. The inclusion of a blog and links to Facebook and Twitter pages helps Talbot House engage across relevant areas of social media.

Upshots

The consistent and professional identity has allowed Talbot House to appeal to the wider demographic of professionals and sponsors, whilst still being approachable and supportive in the eyes of their staff and service users. Talbot House already has plans for development with a satellite centre in Wythenshawe to help parents and carers in a wider area. The Creative Vein branding, marketing material and website, coupled with the impressive new drop in centre, puts this vital charity in a prime position to strengthen its existing community and reach out into new areas.