Design for the ages
Age UK
Design, illustration, copywriting, tone
Creating a new visual approach and copy guidelines for one of Age UK’s most important services.
What we did
Illustration
Design
Storyboarding
Copywriting
Age UK is the country’s largest charity dedicated to helping everyone make the most of later life.
They asked us to reimagine one of their most important core ‘products’ – the series of practical guides they send out (or make available online) to thousands of individuals and families each year. We created new core brand guidelines around Age UK’s Information & Advice (I&A) materials and presented these as a series of spreads for extensive testing with older people’s groups around the country.
The feedback was almost unanimously positive, with older people and carers really responding to both the visual and verbal approach. From their surveys and research, Age UK reported back that over 90% of audience members felt that the new guides were more accessible, clearer and more empowering.
We got to work rebranding 8-10 of the most commonly used, and urgently needed guides. These then served as a template, showing Age UK’s team how to apply the new visual and verbal style across their full suite of I&A materials.
At the heart of the redesign is a new illustration style, which enables the charity to talk about a range of topics in an inclusive, diverse and engaging way. To date, we’ve created over 200 illustrations for Age UK, which also feature on other brand materials, such as calendars and social adverts.
The rebranded guides are now published in their thousands, not just online but in doctors surgeries and care homes up and down the country, giving people the information and advice they need to make the most of later life.
