Hat-Trick Design sets the tone for Friendship Works

The London-based charity provides long-term support for children from disadvantaged backgrounds by organising weekly one-to-one outings with volunteer mentors. Although the charity has existed since the 1980s, the new identity was needed as its original name, Friends United Network, was too similar to that of the social networking site Friends Reunited, says Friendship Works chief executive Richard Turner.

Hat-Trick was appointed to work on the new name, as well as to create a logo, stationery, website templates and banners, in June 2009 following a three-way credentials-led pitch. The new identity will come into use at the end of this month.

The logo consists of a capital and a lower-case F to symbolise the mentor and child. Hat-Trick has produced a concertina promotional leaflet that spells out ’friendship’ on one side and ’works’ on the other, using these capital and lower-case pairs.

Turner says, ’The idea behind the logo is great because it’s something we can develop ourselves without vast costs and constant design input.’

Hat-Trick creative director Jim Sutherland says, ’The creative needed to appeal to three different groups – the funders, volunteers and children – as coherently as possible. We wanted to explain the charity’s work without showing pictures of adults and children.’

The identity also needs to appeal to men, as the charity often struggles to attract them as volunteers, says Turner.

Sutherland says, ’It was important to find the right tone. We didn’t want to target the work at children because it could have been condescending. It needed to look professional, but caring, and hard-hitting for the donors.’