Positive look for charity

The Muscular Dystrophy Group celebrates its 40th anniversary this month with a new name, logo and literature guidelines by Spencer Landor. The organisation recognised that it needed a strong brand name to raise its profile and improve awareness, and hence boost donations. However, it was decided that a complete name change would be throwing the baby out with the bath water.

The group is to be known as the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign, to better reflect the charity’s ‘active and pioneering’ qualities, according to executive director Tony Lee.

‘We are on a campaign to find treatment and cures for muscular dystrophy and to change people’s lives for the better,’ he says. Muscular dystrophy is the term for a range of conditions involving the progressive weakening and wasting away of muscle.

The previous logo featured a white head and shoulders with an arm wrapped around the shoulders of a second black figure. ‘It didn’t reflect the personality [of the charity], and suffered from having figurative elements they could have meant anything,’ says Spencer Landor creative partner John Spencer.

The new identity is ‘a graphic description of the condition. Its contrasting bold and “dystrophic” type makes direct reference to the effects of a range of conditions which result in the progressive weakening and wasting of muscle,’ he says.

‘Its directness was inspired by the attitudes we encountered among people with neuromuscular conditions, their families and those associated with the campaign.’

The new identity is orange and blue. ‘Bright colours and positive language are integral to the scheme,’ Spencer adds.

Spencer Landor worked with the charity’s in-house designer Matthew Bellamy, who has designed all the new materials following the consultancy’s implementation guidelines. The new identity has been applied to core publications such as the annual review, a series of leaflets aimed at the public and the MDC’s website.

The new logo is unveiled on Saturday.

Design: Spencer Landor

Client: Muscular Dystrophy Campaign