With over 150 years of hard work and expertise to our name, our brand already has a lot of credibility and trust assigned to it. But it’s time to reach new parts of the Barnardo’s community, including younger and more diverse audiences – so we needed an updated brand that speaks more to those who need us most. So, in collaboration with children, young people, colleagues, and volunteers, we’ve co-created an exciting, fresh and modern look, sound and feel.
Jump to: Watch our brand new TV advert now!
Why our brand is important
Children and young people today are forging their futures against a background of huge uncertainty and disruption. Much of their lives have changed beyond recognition in the past few years, with the impact of the pandemic, and then the cost-of-living crisis exposing – and increasing – the inequalities in society.
With rising numbers of children facing poverty, poor mental health and growing concerns about the changing harms online – we recognised that children were on a burning platform.
We needed to adapt. Particularly as our research showed that many children and young people weren't aware of Barnardo's or how we could support them. In a poll, around 50% of children didn’t know who we were.
We knew we needed to adapt with a brand designed to stand out and work in a digital age that looks and feels relevant to the children, young people and families who need us, and inspires others to support us.
Our new look has been co-created with young people - so whether they already know us or not, they can see themselves in our community and feel like it’s somewhere they belong.
We’re incredibly excited by the new look for the charity and hope it will ensure we’re able to keep supporting children and young people for another 150 years.
Evolution and development of our brand
Our previous brand was over 10 years old, and previous iterations have not changed dramatically since the 1960s. See the images below to see the evolution of our logo from the Victorian days to the present day.
Brand film
To help articulate who we are and what we stand for, we also created a brand film which highlights our new personality, brand promise and narrative, and our new look and feel.
Co-creating our logo with children and young people
The new logo was also co-created by children and young people. We gave them paints, pens, and coloured paper and asked them to express what they were going through and how it made them feel. They also drew the first letter of their name in the same way, and each person expressed different emotions, different life experiences, and different aspects of their personalities. Their drawings are directly reflected in our expressive new logo.
Watch the logo film to learn more about how it was created.
Our brand in action
It will take a few years to roll out the brand across the whole charity as we’re doing it in a sustainable way – we're not throwing anything away that’s useful and we’ll only move things into the brand as and when they’re needed. But there are lots of things, especially in the digital world, that we can start to see almost immediately. Below are two examples, but you can see lots more on our brand guidelines.
As part of the roll out and public launch of our brand we created a new TV advert, which you can watch below and across Channel 4 and Sky Networks. A full list of where to watch can be viewed here. .
You can also read a blog from Jo Moon, Special Projects Officer, who has reflected on the themes used in the advert and how they represent the true lived experiences of some of the children and young people we support, particularly related to child poverty.
Retail campaign
Our colleagues in our retail stores are also fully embracing the new brand with their new spring campaign, new branded stores and refurbishments. Over the next few years, you’ll start to see more of our stores in the new brand. Take a look at their Pre-Love, Re-Love, Feel the Love campaign below. And why not head down to your local store and donate, browse and shop!
