Re-branding for an established, independent fostering agency based in the North West of England, providing foster placements to children and young people.
Most people who know me know that I am a huge advocate for small businesses with big hearts. Therapeutic Fostering Ltd. epitomises my interest with its Family First approach to Foster Care. Pulling away from the big business aspects of the industry, Therapeutic Fostering established itself as a network that is "Supporting our Carers to Care". Therapeutic Fostering is an established, independent fostering agency based in the North West of England, providing foster placements to children and young people.
THE CHALLENGE
Therapeutic Fostering approached me to discuss a number of challenges they'd encountered during their rapid growth. Most notably consistency in message and brand. A banner had become the companies logo, their website was very text heavy, and the visual direction of the company wasn't consistent.
THE GOAL
To create a concise and clean visual brand that expresses the core values of the company: Reliable, Family-oriented, Care, and Support. Eager to avoid the current Industry clichés, the company wanted to fit in with the bigger businesses in the sector, while still demonstrating their commitment to the carers.
The objective was to undertake a complete re-brand of existing assets including the website, logo, tone, and guidelines.
THE PREPARATION
To overcome this I started with a competition audit (to learn about the industry and my clients position in it). The information gave a loose framework for the direction and style that we would need to exceed to stand out.
As information on carers is protected, I instead sought to gain insight into the audience through the companies social workers who hold close relationships with the clients. Lee and Jess were exceptionally helpful in explaining the age, demographic, and points of interest of the audience. Usually clients are committed to fostering before the first meeting, however their pain point is the lack of clear information and their concerns about being treated as "just another number".
THE SOLUTION
Regular meetings on Zoom and MS Team allowed the Therapeutic Fostering team to really get involved with the direction of the process, a strong preference towards a heart was established early, which was ideal as the market was saturated by abstract shapes and "corporate clip-art figures".
The colours are carefully selected to highlight the companies approach in line with current colour psychology. Once I explained that certain colours reflect certain feelings in people the team saw the palette as a reflection of themselves; with cheerful yellow, passionate fuchsia, reliable blue, and growing green.
The shape itself displays the narrative of the company. The heart shape referencing the core tenant of caring for its carers, with the negative space creating a "network of different people".
This symbol was expanded on to create branding guidelines that would keep Therapeutic Fosterings message consistent during its continued growth.
To demonstrate the flexibility of the final product, I also created patterns and concepts pieces of common company assets. These included a corporate car wrap, and a welcome box. The team was delighted, as not only were they involved in the process, but that they could see through the branding guidelines a clear message for future assets.
Therapeutic Fosterings recruitment was more interested in practical assets such as exhibition stands and banners. Since the project was in its final stages I conducted a further meeting with the manager to demonstrate the practical nature of the guidelines.
I finished by building a responsive website in web-flow that highlighted the human element of the company. With a narrative flow from top to bottom that takes prospective carers through the process of application and the benefits of working with Therapeutic Fostering.
https://therapeutic-fostering.webflow.io/