Implementing a new brand and optimising accessibility

When two leading sight-loss charities recently merged a new brand was born. I was honoured to be the first external designer to grab their new brand toolkit and produce their flagship publication – their annual impact report..

Fight for Sight's 2024 Impact Report had four main objectives:

• Showcase the organisation's achievements over the previous 12 months

• Showcase the new branding with strong emphasis on graphic styling and bold new colours.

• Optimise the layout, contrast, fonts and export tags for readers with impaired vision or using screen-reading technology.

• Optimise for both print and digital publishing.

Created with: InDesign, Illustrator and Acrobat

Mental Health Foundation 2024 Impact Report

For many years, I have been responsible for designing the Mental Health Foundation's annual publications. Following a complete rebrand, I was thrilled to experiment with a fresh set of design tools and some fantastic new colors.

Project objectives:

• Showcase the organisation's incredible achievements as a leading mental health champion

• Showcase the new branding with strong emphasis on graphic styling and bold new colours.

• Optimise the layout, contrast, fonts and export tags for readers with impaired vision or using screen-reading technology.

• Optimise for both print and digital publishing.

Created with: InDesign, Illustrator and Acrobat

I've been a bit busy...

CHARITY SECTOR CLIENTS

Brands: Royal British Legion Industries (RBLI) , Fight for Sight, Air Ambulance Kent Surrey Sussex, Mental Health Foundation, Vision Foundation

Sectors: Non profit, military, health,

Comment: February is always nerve-wrackingly quiet. I should know this by now. But even after 12+ years of freelancing, I still have a niggling brain worm telling me that's it – I'm done. It's the plague of all freelancers; a rollercoaster of too much work/not enough work that we have absolutely no control over.

So how do I get through February? Firstly, I fight the urge to huddle under a duvet and watch Netflix (if nothing else to save on the central heating). Instead, I update my portfolio. Looking over my recent work never fails to lift my flagging spirits and this year more than most. It reminded me that a little lull now is exactly what I need to recharge after an exceptionally busy six months producing a number of 60+ page glossy reports – and plenty of other stuff in between.

And guess what, while I've been writing this, I've had two emails booking work in for March. Thus proving, once again, that I really shouldn't listen to that pesky brain worm.

Happy February everyone.