The Climate Group repositions

The Climate Group is looking to evolve its brand communications and has appointed True North ahead of incumbent group Browns Design for the project.

The not-for-profit organisation, which has offices across the globe in China, India and the US, is looking to steer its communications away from the established visual language and tone of voice associated with climate change issues, in a bid to avoid Greenwash.

The Climate Group communications director Alison Lucas, who is heading up the project, explains, ‘We’ve been around for four years now. Climate change as an issue wasn’t as mainstream then as it is now. It was a unique place to be, but now there are a lot of people talking. We want to refresh our brand to reflect change on the issues, as well as move away from the language and images that people use, and now is the right time to do it.’

Manchester consultancy True North won a three-way pitch against BB/Saunders and Browns Design to clinch part of the £50 000 brand refresh project, which will also include tone-of-voice work by The Writer.

The aim of the project will be to inject optimism and dynamism into what has become a fatigued subject.

The communications materials created under Lucas’s brief will retain the original identity, but will use more colour and photography to reflect the organisation’s current remit.

‘We have been quite limiting in how we have used our brand,’ says Lucas. ‘We tend to stick to the red, white and black – intense-looking publications – but through design, we hope to inject colour and positivity, and more of our vision, through innovative creative visuals. We want to explore ways of visualising what a low-carbon future will look like.’

‘The identity created by Browns in 2004 has been our strongest calling card to date. It has distinguished us from the environmental green and blue. The issue is mainstream now,’ she adds. True North, which has been appointed as a ‘design partner’, is charged with developing the new visual language for the organisation.

The new materials will also consolidate The Climate Group’s communications across its 11 international offices.