Irish Guide Dogs  

Helping to change people’s lives

With so many charity brands competing to command the public's attention, Irish Guide Dogs for the Blind needed to find a way to bring all their regional and national activity together and present one brand image to their diverse audiences enabling them to drive awareness and deliver against their ambitious fundraising targets. With their loyal supporters predominantly of an older demographic, they also needed to improve their appeal to a younger audience and recruit them as volunteers to ensure the longevity of the organisation.

Challenge:

With so many charity brands competing to command the public’s attention, Irish Guide Dogs for the Blind needed to find a way to bring all their regional and national activity together and present one brand image to their diverse audiences enabling them to drive awareness and deliver against their ambitious fundraising targets. With their loyal supporters predominantly of an older demographic, they also needed to improve their appeal to a younger audience and recruit them as volunteers to ensure the longevity of the organisation. We were tasked with helping to clarify their position, broaden their appeal and help them to engage with supporters more effectively. The existing communications were ad hoc and gave little scope for creating broader impact. They needed a branding solution that was simple to manage yet gave them an effective presence that would work in schools, workplaces, on the high street and online, and allow them to gain cut-through and motivate audiences to donate both time and money to their very worthy cause.

Opportunity:

The creative execution built on the new brand essence of ‘Optimism’, which reflects the positive impact the organisation has on the lives of their clients. A vibrant colour palette and energetic typographic style gives the brand a distinct and recognisable personality. When used in combination with our bold graphic device, which represents a ‘window of optimism’, the result is a brand system which is simple to manage and highly impactful. A new strapline “together we can change a life” was introduced which has both a call to action to the public to get involved, as well as speaking to the working partnership between the dogs and their clients that can have a profound and long-lasting impact on the lives of their clients but also their families. The result is an accessible new brand with a fresh confidence, and a visual identity that brings consistency and vibrancy to their communications.