Fiasco Design adds “craft and personality” to social impact app OnHand

Fiasco Design has created the brand identity and strategy for social and environmental impact app OnHand with a bespoke hand-drawn logo and suite of custom emojis designed to help “lift missions off-screen”.

The app was created for use by businesses to help their employees to participate in mini volunteering missions, supported by a network of charity partners. “It connects those in need with those who want to give”, says Fiasco Design partner and associate creative director Chris Tozer, as employees can open the on-demand, location-based app and choose a mission “as easily as booking a taxi”.

Following its successful appearance on BBC’s Dragon’s Den, OnHand needed a new identity that would help to scale up the brand and prepare it for growth. Tozer says OnHand chose Fiasco as its design partner as the studio has previously worked with “businesses at a similar stage of their journey”.

OnHand’s new strategy centres around the idea: Mini missions that matter to you. The statement is directed at the employee and seeks to “empower” them, highlighting “the opportunity to make a difference to the things they care about”, says Tozer.

The strategy runs through the visual identity, particularly the logo which was designed alongside lettering artist Alec Tear. The studio chose Tear because his work has “right level of craft and personality”, says Tozer, making him a “natural fit” for the brief.

While some of the hand-drawn qualities of the previous logo have been retained, the new version makes use of “offset, cursive strokes”, aiming to convey the “human to human nature” of OnHand, Tozer explains. The capitalised O adds “extra impact” and the arched crossbar of the H was designed to be “uplifting” and bring “a sense of vitality”, he says, adding that the arched crossbar also allows the logo to be “easily stacked”.

Fiasco Design opted to use a “cheery sunshine yellow” for the logo paired with a more muted supporting palette of earthy tones and a deep teal hue. Tozer says other “pops of colour” appear on captions and call-to-action elements across the app.

For the app experience, missions are arranged vertically “to give a sense of scroll-through” in lozenges and rounded modules, according to Tozer.  OnHand’s new suite of “charming”, custom emojis was designed in-house to help “bring missions to life in a way that feels authentic and palpable”, he says.

Tozer adds that gamified elements of the app take the form of mission and name badges, included so users can feel “a sense of achievement” when completing missions.

OnHand’s human centred strategy continues through its use of user-generated photography, which shows moments such as individuals completing missions and team-building tasks. This photography style combined with “cause-and-effect storytelling” looks to “celebrate successful missions” and “propel [users] into the real world”, says Tozer.

Fiasco Design sought to achieve a “perma-positive brand voice” through “succinct, celebratory headlines”, he adds, reinforcing the positive tone with OnHand’s hero sans serif font Agrandir, drawn by Alex Slobzheninov and published by Pangram Pangram. The supporting font – Plus Jakarta – is a contemporary take on geometric sans serif styles, designed by Gumpita Rahayu from Tokotype.