Identity ‘saving’ for Home Office

The Home Office is expecting to make cost savings of at least £160 000 per year with the introduction of a revised corporate identity, created by The Team, along with centralised printing processes.

The new identity will encompass 13 Home Office directorates, which each previously used their own identities. These include the Human Resources and Equality Unit, the Metropolitan Police Committee, the Corporate Services Directorate and a number of inspectorates. The individual organisations involved are ones which in general have little direct contact with the public.

The Royal Crest, always part of the Home Office identity, will now be used only for certain elements of communication. It will be omitted from some electronic reproductions of the identity to make it easier to read when reproduced on-screen, and to print from screen versions.

The complete version does use the crest, above a bridge symbol. Constitutionally, the crest, when it is used, must appear at the top of a design. For campaigns or particular Home Office initiatives, however, the crest will not be used. A tag line, which reads “Building a safe, just and tolerant society”, runs across the bottom of the identity.

Home Office director of communications Brian Butler says the constitutional requirement for the crest to appear at the top of campaign posters, for example, could detract from their message. Omitting it allows the Home Office identity to appear at the bottom, enabling more effective branding, he says. He describes the predicted identity cost savings as, “A conservative estimate.”

Public consultation had shown “confusion over what the Home Office actually does”, says Butler. The tag line of the identity had been introduced in a less formal sense over two and a half years to reduce this problem. “We now have a statement of purpose,” he says.

The Team partner Viv Wilcock says that modernisation of the Home Office has resulted in a body with “more holistic goals” than had previously been the case, making staff receptive to the new identity.

The new look will be introduced gradually, as the opportunity to replace existing materials arises.

The identity will make a major public appearance on materials related to the change in UK phone numbers this weekend.