Happy Tomorrow gets on with literacy job for DfES

Get On, part of a £1.5bn Government campaign to improve adult literacy and numeracy, which launches on 31 August, has been branded by Happy Tomorrow.

Working to a brief supplied by ad agency St Luke’s, the consultancy has created a logo, literature including stationery, press folders and postcards, packaging for a support video and a book. It has also designed the typeface which will appear in all television and print advertising.

The initiative is run by the Department for Education and Skills, which says there are as many as seven million working-age adults in England with a reading age of 11 or lower.

Even more adults have numeracy problems and around 500 000 people struggle with the English language as a result of it not being their mother tongue, according to a DfES spokesman.

The consultancy was briefed to design a clear, simple identity which could also work as part of a strapline and phone number combination. Forty-nine different versions of the logo were designed after St Luke’s encouraged the consultancy to ‘go crazy’.

‘The Government wanted something quite simple that [its target audience] could understand. This was our initial approach as we didn’t think the Government would want anything too crazy. But the entire campaign is still colourful and very solid,’ says Happy Tomorrow art director Mark Bown.

As a result of the branding work, Happy Tomorrow has been invited to tender for the designs of a learning pack that will be used by teachers to improve adult literacy and numeracy skills. It expects to hear within two weeks if it has been successful.

It won the identity project without a pitch and on the strength of work for St Luke’s last year.

‘The campaign’s aim is to encourage adults who lack basic skills to sign up for training provided by colleges free of charge,’ says the DfES spokesman.