Newcastle Vision Support Rebrand

Introduction

Newcastle Vision Support chose to commission second year graphic design students to design their new identity and website. For more than 150 years this local charity has provided support to people with visual impairment in Newcastle upon Tyne. Students worked on the live project as part of a module titled Collaboration & Professional Engagement in Graphic Design. Over a semester, students worked in small teams to design a rebranded identity system that effectively communicated the personality and services offered by Newcastle Vision Support.

In advance of the student project, academics from the School of Design consulted with the charity to gather insight and conducted workshops that explored a potential alternative name change, from the original Newcastle Society for Blind People. It was felt that revising the name could more accurately reflect the ethos of the charity and better convey the support it provides.

The Challenge

Students were tasked with rebranding the newly renamed charity in order to engage service users and the general public, create designs for a user friendly website and propose experiential applications of the new identity which would coincide with the charity’s 150 year anniversary.

Working with Newcastle Vision Support

After being briefed by staff from Newcastle Vision Support, students attended weekly critique sessions with tutors and met with the charity to present and discuss their team’s design development. The project provided students with experience first-hand of working for a client and managing a design project within a team. Students visited the charity and met with service users to inform their research and to build a richer understanding of visual impairment.

The Results

Each student team presented their final rebrand designs and the development of their ideas to staff from Newcastle Vision Support. The presentations followed a pitch format, in which each team provided a formal delivery of their process and the virtues of their proposed visual identity system. The charity then selected one teams identity to be developed further and implemented throughout the organisation.

The winning team worked with the charity, their tutors and an external designer to apply their design to a new website, as well as internal and external touch-points. Students also delivered materials for the launch of the charity’s new identity, as part of Newcastle Vision Support’s 150 year Anniversary celebration event.