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Stress, spinning plates and free pitching – what’s it like to start your own studio?

Despite some of the doom and gloom surrounding the design industry, every week brings news of another new studio opening for business.

The creative work is only one part of it – founders need to grapple with business models, management and personnel issues, and sometimes, as Allies Creative Studios shared recently, sniping and backbiting from other agencies.

We wanted to understand what the landscape looks like for new studios, the challenges they’re facing, and the ways in which they are positioning their offer, given how many studios are going for a finite amount of client work.

So we asked them – Lee Weaver who founded OneMay in 2022, Brett Goldhawk, who founded DesignHawk in 2023, Dominic Davidson-Merritt, who founded Studio Puzzle in 2024, Natasha Peskin, who founded Boring earlier this year, and Natalie Prout, who launched Mischief Maker with Vini Vieria just last month.

What are the biggest challenges you’ve found starting a studio?

Lee Weaver: For us, hiring has definitely been a big challenge, more so from the point of view of knowing when to. We’ve been keen to maximise opportunities to grow, but also want to do it sustainably.

It’s led to us as founders being a little overworked at times, which has been a challenge. But it feels like a sacrifice that’s worth it, rather than hiring too early and then having to reverse the decision.

And then the spinning of plates! It’s difficult at times to juggle the work, the admin, the team, networking, nurturing client relationships, updating the website, posting on LinkedIn etc etc

Transitioning from an employee to a studio founder is a big step, but a super rewarding one!

Brett Goldhawk: The first is, and always will be, about overcoming fear. It took many years to take the leap. As a managing director at an agency during COVID, and miraculously keeping them afloat, it gave me the confidence to know you can conquer anything if you put your mind to it – (and a realisation that there’s no rush to reach your goals.

The second is a little more pragmatic and that’s all things money – revenue, cashflow, projects, new business pipelines, accountancy. Understanding that when you remove all the passion, collaboration, client-focus, creativity and innovation, it’s a business and that business needs your total focus every single day.

Dominic Davidson-Merritt: Planning. Being so new and small means we love the ability to be flexible in our process – to benefit clients, the work, and us personally.

However that is a double-edged sword in terms of planning ahead. Without lots of different work streams running at one time we do suddenly find ourselves with ‘nothing to do’ as projects shift around.

So we always try to make that time just as valuable by working on the business, planning case studies, or taking some time away from our desks. We knew that starting an agency in these weird times was probably going to be a slow-burn, and we’d rather do it carefully and on our own terms, than burn out.

Natasha Peskin: Maintaining momentum. Launching Boring was really exciting and because its positioning was quite provocative, it did a good job of getting attention, one that I rode for a good couple of months.

But once the initial interest was over I was aware that I became yet another “new agency” contributing to the constant noise. I have so many ideas for PR, LinkedIn content and creative projects but between client work, and after school parenting, it does feel like an albatross around my neck. I have found it hard to find any time (or headspace) to feed the algorithm and keep Boring visible.

Ultimately, in lieu of being able to churn out viral content three times a week, our work will need to speak for itself but I worry it’s not enough these days.

Natalie Prout: It’s what we’d imagine is the classic agency start-up dilemma: splitting time between doing the work and building the business.

We’re trying to design a different kind of studio – new pricing, new processes, new standards – whilst simultaneously holding ourselves to the same high bar creatively as the industry heavyweights. It’s a lot, but that’s the gig!

What is your point of difference compared to other studios?

Lee Weaver: We have a simple mantra, do great work and be great to work with. We place huge emphasis on the latter part. Being responsive, genuinely helpful and invested in our clients’ success. It doesn’t sound like rocket science, but we know that our clients really appreciate that about us.

Brett Goldhawk: While many of the larger studios are rebranding to expand their offer and are busy introducing jazzy new slogans and complicated messages we simply care about brands selling more stuff.

It’s not about no-nonsense, it’s quite the opposite, we obsess over all things ‘supermarket’ and love the hustle and bustle of the weekly shop. So, we focus on strategic and creative projects that gets people to put brands in their basket.

That’s why we specialise in packaging design, shopper marketing and customer sell-ins. That’s quite a simple message to land with our clients.

Dominic Davidson-Merritt: I think it’s been creative value. It doesn’t sound very sexy does it?

But as we work with SMEs, that don’t have multi-million pound budgets, we are able to bring our international backgrounds, big-agency experience, and an equal-level of creativity to their projects at a fraction of the cost – compared to the big agencies that we’re not competing against – yet!

So while businesses are looking at their budgets more closely than ever, I truly believe that a small studio like us can have a winning hand to play.

Natasha Peskin: We’re a branding agency that transforms the world’s dullest industries – the darkest corners of B2B that probably causes internal teams to groan, but we find utterly fascinating. Think logistics, insurance, manufacturing, raw materials – the kind of businesses that keep the world turning.

I bring together talent who’ve spent their careers building or redefining some of the world’s best-known consumer brands, and turn their attention to businesses that need it most.

Natalie Prout: We’re a strategic-creative partnership, built to deliver both the thinking and the craft. It’s not strategy first, then design – we make together, from start to finish. That’s how we protect the integrity of the idea and make sure it lands with impact.

What is one decision you wish you’d made earlier?

Lee Weaver: Founding the studio! I first worked with my co-founder 15 years before we started OneMay. We always said we would start a studio and wish we had taken the jump sooner. It’s challenging, but the most exciting and rewarding few years of my life so far.

Brett Goldhawk: Less of a decision and more of a mindset shift. DesignHawk lives by a philosophy that we do things with a smile on our face. That may sound simple and easy to implement but it genuinely takes time to embed that outlook into every facet of the business. I wish I’d taken this approach for the previous 25+ years in the industry – it would have made for a much happier ride!

Dominic Davidson-Merritt: “Hiring” my wife as the client/new business director. It wasn’t our original plan, but the need quickly became obvious in terms of a more complete offer – something that we didn’t see a lot of other really small studios doing.

It fills out our experience from just creative to include client services, new business, and working client-side.

This way we are understanding our clients better and able to help them more. Not to mention the internal benefits of running projects more efficiently, and sharing the day to day running of the studio.

Natasha Peskin: Find a co-founder. This is my second time running an agency – the first time round I had two co-founders. With Boring, I felt so strongly about what it should be and how I wanted to grow it that I decided to build it alone.

Six months in, I realise I may have been shortsighted. As a result I’m now looking to build a very small network of incredible partners who are invested in growing the business, but still ensure I retain the control I need to build the dream I have in mind.

Natalie Prout: Protecting the value of our craft by partnering with clients who are deadly serious about bringing bold ideas to life. Saying no to briefs is so hard. But backing your vision is a call only you can make.

What is your approach to free pitching?

Lee Weaver: Free pitching has been a big part of our growth, allowing us to win projects that we maybe otherwise wouldn’t have due to being a new agency.

That being said, we are very selective about the pitches we enter, usually only when we’ve been invited, rather than open tenders. This relies on creating relationships, but we feel gives us a much better chance of success.

I totally see the arguments against free pitching. But for us, as a small studio, who don’t have clients banging our door down every day, it feels like taking a bet on ourselves, and as long as we’re selective about the pitches we choose, it’s one we’re happy to take. So far, we’ve won around 75% of the pitches we’ve entered, which has doubled our year-on-year revenue.

Brett Goldhawk: We absolutely do not free pitch, and I’m quite vocal that as an industry we do ourselves a massive disservice with little advocacy for change.

We’ll never eradicate the problem; like ants in a death spiral we’ll eventually all die from exhaustion.

Dominic Davidson-Merritt: We’ve agreed not to take on any free pitches, as our size would just make it impossibly disruptive and incredibly risky financially.

From an ethical point of view, we also believe that creativity and its commercial application is a service that should be paid for like any other.

That said, ask me again when we are quiet with nothing on and you might get a different answer.

Natasha Peskin: We’ve been fortunate so far not to have to, as we aren’t competing for huge agency briefs.

Recently I chose to invest money in delivering a couple of proposals, because I felt it was worth the potential payday, but I paid all contributors their full rate.

Importantly I made the decision to invest because it wasn’t competitive – we certainly don’t have the resources, time or cushioning to pitch against other agencies. It’s hugely exploitative, not to mention extremely stressful for all.

Natalie Prout: No-one wants to pitch for free. It’s exploitative and a real problem. However, as a start-up, it’s sometimes the only way to be considered for a brilliant opportunity. So we do it sparingly.

Our pitch rule is to show we’re capable of doing the work and being great partners, but we try not to actually do the project in the pitch. Show enough spark to open the door, but save the magic for when it counts – and frankly, ensure we get paid for it.

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Impact Stories: How Bloom repositioned Ginsters (2023)

Founded in the late 1960s, Ginsters is well-known among British snackers. But by 2022, it had a perception problem. Despite widespread recognition, the savoury pasty brand was struggling to attract new customers.

For many, the name evoked hangovers, service stations and “emergency food”, rather than quality or taste. A dissonance between the product and how it was perceived became a commercial barrier.

“Ginsters was highly salient,” says marketing director Sarah Babb, “but it didn’t stand for much in the minds of new consumers.” Research revealed deep-rooted associations with poor quality, shaped not by the food itself, but by legacy distribution channels.

“The reality of our quality was just not understood,” Babb explains. “We needed to tell the nation the truth.”

To address this, Ginsters invested in a full identity overhaul, carried out by London agency Bloom, in a bid to put taste, provenance and personality front and centre.

Repositioning a British staple

Ginsters’ brief to Bloom was to challenge misconceptions and reposition the brand for modern consumers, without alienating its loyal base. The identity overhaul, launched in 2023, combined design refinement with a clearer, more confident brand voice.

It’s worth noting the logo barely changed at all – just some slight tweaks to the lettering of the wordmark, and the addition of “Est 1967” to underline that Ginsters had pedigree.

The before and after of the Ginsters logo

The most visible change came through the brand’s use of illustration. As a Cornish brand, famous for its Cornish pasty, it wanted to lean into its local roots in a new way.

The previous rural scene – described by Bloom as dark and pastoral – was replaced with a contemporary, layered composition depicting Cornish landmarks and local character.

“We wanted to shift from historical caricature to a living, breathing Cornish world,” says Ishbel Lohman, strategy director at Bloom.

To maintain credibility, the creative team grounded the new illustration system in Ginsters’ archives, referencing everything from vintage slogans to delivery vans and local farming scenes. “We saw illustration as a way to convey provenance, taste, and personality without relying on nostalgic tropes,” Lohman explains.

The before and after Ginsters illustrations

Food photography, updated typography and a conversational tone of voice rounded out the system. Crucially, the new design aimed to elevate the brand without losing approachability.

“The risk was going too playful and undermining product credibility,” Lohman says. “We worked to balance joy with trust.”

Commercial results

Since the relaunch, Ginsters has reported a significant uptick in both sales and brand health. In 2024, it was named one of Britain’s fastest-growing grocery brands, with sales up 14.9% year-on-year to £133.5 million. Volume sales rose by 51% in the months following the rebrand, with the brand now holding a 50% share of the UK’s pasties and slices market.

The new Ginsters packaging by Bloom

A national campaign titled Taste the Effort, developed in parallel with the new identity, reached 93% of UK adults and helped recruit over half a million new households (Samworth Brothers Annual Review 2023–24, p14). “We’ve seen measurable uplift in associations like ‘uses the best quality ingredients’ and ‘tastier than other brands’,” says Babb. “Those were key objectives from the outset.”

Internally, the brand tracks equity measures in partnership with Kantar, alongside sales and penetration. “Strong brands are grown over years, not months,” Babb adds. “But we did measure increases in penetration as well as market share and brand sales growth to understand the impact in the more immediate term.”

Expanding reach and deepening relevance

The rebrand also laid the foundation for Ginsters to diversify its portfolio and reach new audiences. With a refreshed identity, the brand was in a better position to innovate beyond its core range.

In 2023, the brand introduced a new Pockets range of handheld pastries, targeting younger shoppers and food-to-go occasions (Bakeryinfo). Shortly after, it launched a limited-edition Heinz Beanz & Cheese slice and partnered with Walkers to create a flaming hot sausage roll sold exclusively on TikTok Shop, which sold out in under eight hours.

The new Ginsters visual identity by Bloom

The new launches reflect a more confident, and at times playful personality, designed to attract younger audiences while maintaining trust. “We’re speaking to younger shoppers in new ways,” says Babb. “The brand now has a revitalised personality that feels genuine and fun.”

It’s also clear that the refreshed tone of voice and illustrative assets have also improved consistency across touchpoints, from packaging and ads to social and retail displays.

External recognition and industry impact

The rebrand has also drawn recognition from peers and press. Samworth Brothers’ insight team won an AURA ROI Award for the research that informed the brand strategy, and the identity work has been featured in trade and design titles including Convenience Store and Food & Drink International.

For Bloom, the project has helped consolidate its position in FMCG branding, particularly in modernising legacy brands without erasing their equity, such as Robinsons Squash and Diageo’s single malt whisky portfolio.

The new Ginsters visual identity by Bloom

“Ginsters shows what happens when you respect the past but aren’t afraid to move things on,” says Lohman.

While the brand’s new identity is already delivering results, the work isn’t done, according to Babb. “When we started, the only distinctive brand asset we truly held was the logo. Now we have a full suite. The goal is to keep building that memory structure and consistency over time.”

Lessons in legacy

Ginsters’ transformation offers a clear lesson for other heritage brands: meaningful change doesn’t require erasure. “It should be an evolution of a story, not a revolution,” says Babb.

The rebrand succeeded by tackling perception barriers head-on through design, messaging, and consistent execution. In doing so, Ginsters has not only grown its market share but built the foundations for a stronger, more culturally relevant brand.

As the Ginsters team put it, the pasty is back – and it’s got something to say.

The new Ginsters illustration by Bloom

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What is your earliest design memory?

When Design Week launched in 1986, it did so with a campaign which featured pictures of churches. The point was that design, unlike some professions, is a vocation for many people, who are drawn to it on an almost spiritual level.

And like many vocations, it can take hold early in people’s lives. So we asked a range of designers to share their first memory of being interested in the way something was designed…

Jamie Ellul – A toy-packaging secret

It was Easter 1986. I was nine years old and had a dairy intolerance that gave me asthma attacks. Which meant no Easter eggs for little Jamie. Ever.

Instead, my parents always let me choose a toy. And in 1986 the toy to have was a Transformers Dinobot. I still remember getting the Diplodocus (called Sludge as you’re asking) home and unboxing it REALLY carefully.

Because I loved the Transformers packaging almost as much as the toys inside. I’d keep the boxes in my wardrobe on the highest shelf so my little brother couldn’t get his greasy mitts on them.

As a kid who loved art, I swooned over the slick airbrushed bots that wrapped around the pack. But the thing I loved the most was the scale on the back that gave you the bot’s scores out of 10 for strength, intelligence, speed etc. The stats could only be seen when you put a red acetate sheet over the top. Little did I know that was a classic graphic designer’s print trick.

A few years later we moved house. I came home from school to find that my mum had cleared out my wardrobe and binned all the boxes. I never forgave her.

Jamie Ellul is founder of Supple Studio.

Chloe Templeman – A self-designed corporate logo

I didn’t know design or branding was a thing when I was seven – but looking back, I guess that’s when I created my first logo. I can still picture it perfectly to this day.

For context, my sister and I used to play a game called “Offices,” which basically meant sitting in our room with a dial-up phone, an old keyboard, and some blank paper, pretending we ran a global empire.

To me, it was obvious our fake company needed branding. So I hand-drew a logo, made letterheads, and even designed a sign for the door.

The logo? A large X with small W, F, and C in three quadrants, and a dot in the fourth. We named the company World Fuji Cowa – reflecting our global reach and, of course, “Cowa” from “Cowabunga!” – a nod to our deep Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles obsession at the time.

I may not have known the word for it then, but that was the moment I discovered my love for design.

Chloe Templeman is executive creative director at Pearlfisher.

Benjamin Hubert – A formative school trip

My earliest memory of being interested in how something was designed was when I was about 15. Our design and technology teacher took my class on a school trip to London – which I hadn’t visited much at that age – and we went to the Royal College of Art.

We visited the graduate show for the MA Vehicle Design, and it was really eye-opening. I didn’t even realise people studied that kind of thing at the time. The work was speculative, futuristic, highly creative and extremely varied.

I vividly remember exploring the RCA building itself – seeing the studios, the workshops, the prototypes being produced. The physicality of so many future forward visions was really inspiring.

At that point, I wasn’t using the internet that much – I was mostly using books as reference – so it was one of the first opportunities I had to see people creating design work in real life and bringing ideas to fruition.

That trip made me want to become an automotive designer and it inspired me to start building things – walking robots and tourist submarines – throughout my GCSE and A-Level years.

Later, when I studied design at Loughborough, I started to understand and focus on more of a holistic sense of human-centred design, and that paved the way for what is now LAYER.

Benjamin Hubert is an industrial designer and founder of LAYER.

Mary Hemingway – Pop-ups and paper sculptures

I remember being fascinated by pop-up books from a very young age and spending hours trying to decipher the mechanisms by carefully peering into the gaps to see how it all worked. 

My favourite was Haunted House by Jan Pienkowski (which I still have a copy of, and which I read to my son when he was little). 

This led to me being given books throughout childhood containing things that could be constructed from the pages – I have memories of a 3D paper Edwardian house and a theatre based on The Nutcracker ballet with moving parts and stage scenery. 

This fascination with how a flat piece of paper can be used in so many different ways to create imaginative worlds sparked my interest in how things are designed.

Mary Hemingway is a graphic designer and founder of Design by Women. 

Terry Stephens – The visual joys of multi-pack cereal

When Kellogg’s reintroduced the variety cereal multipack in 1989, eight-year-old Terry was hooked.

In our house, it was very much a “summer holidays treat” – I can still hear my mum saying those words – and while most kids cared about the sugar and/or the hidden toy, I was fascinated by the packaging.

Those tiny, cellophane-wrapped boxes were a riot of colour, bold typography, and playful mascots – a true assault on the eyeballs.

I became so obsessed that I’d redraw the covers one by one. I’m not sure why the multipack fascinated me more than single boxes, but there was magic in seeing them together – clearly part of a set, yet each bursting with its own individual personality.

A miniature house of brands, wrapped in cellophane. What’s not to love?

Not only was it the start of my interest in design but quite possibly the start of my fascination with Mass Fantastic® branding…

Terry Stephens is founder and executive creative director of Nomad.

Yas Banks – Fashion doodles and over-the-top cards

Honestly, it probably started with a notebook I took everywhere as a kid – packed with doodles of people and my own little fashion designs. I was convinced I’d be a fashion designer.

What fascinated me most was the process – layering textures, mixing fabrics, experimenting with shapes, and deciding how something should look and feel. I work in a different practice now, but that early love of process still shapes where I find inspiration today.

There was also a family friend with a full-on card-making set-up in their living room: textured paper, 3D flowers, buttons, glitter glue, the works. I’d spend hours making the most over-the-top greeting cards.

At the time, I thought I was just having fun, but looking back, I was quietly falling in love with lay-out, typography, and the calm satisfaction of bringing visual elements into balance.

Yas Banks is a freelance graphic designer.

Isaac Sodipo – Cars that looked fast

As a child, I was always drawing. I’d sketch anything I saw, from cartoons on TV like Sonic the Hedgehog, to cars I spotted in real life.

Fast cars in particular fascinated me. I was obsessed with the sharp, angular lines of Lamborghinis, the wedge shapes, bold spoilers, speed vents, and the magic of pop-up headlights. I didn’t know it at the time, but I was beginning to notice the design details that made these cars feel so different from the Ford Escort my parents drove.

They weren’t just fast, they looked fast.

Eventually, I started adding those features to my own car drawings, making up designs that blended what I saw with what I imagined. While I didn’t go on to design cars, that early fascination with form and feeling has stayed with me.

Today, working in graphic design, I still think about how subtle details like shape, colour and typography can shift how something is perceived. Looking back, I realise I’ve always been drawn to the way design can express personality and intent, even in something as simple as a sketch of a car.

Isaac Sodipo is design director at Coley Porter Bell.

Anna Burles – A hideous self-made dress

My earliest memory of getting intrigued by how things were actually made was through dabbling in dressmaking. My mum remembers me buying a sewing pattern and some lemon and pale blue fabric at the age of 11 and making an 80s batwing sleeve dress from it.

It was quite hideous, unflattering and very amateurish (much harder than I thought!).

But I loved the process and became obsessed with having my own room, not just to get some space from my brother and sister, who I shared a room with, but so I could decorate it the way I wanted.

I was in the Toyah Willcox fan club at the time and had dyed my fringe with an orange/pink flash, so I remember draping neon bright scarves from the walls and ceiling around my bed to create what I thought was a punk rock four poster.

Anna Burles is creative director and co-founder of Run for the Hills.

Greig Anderson – The logos that defined my life

Looking back, I’ve always been drawn to design – I just didn’t know it had a name.

As a kid, I was fascinated by how things worked and why they looked the way they did. My dad, a mechanical engineer, would take things apart and rebuild them, and I’d watch, amazed by how he seemed to understand it all.

I was more drawn to logos – tracing them, redrawing them on my school bag, skateboard, and jotters. I remember drawing the Chicago Bulls logo over and over until I could do it from memory. It’s funny how it always comes up as one of those logos that when flipped, it looks like an alien reading a book.

The Vans logo, Nike logo variations, and Oasis wordmark filled the rest of the space – icons of the things I loved most as a teenager.

One day in fifth year, a careers advisor saw my sketches and asked, “Have you ever thought about being a graphic designer?” I hadn’t even heard of the job before.

That simple question planted a seed that’s shaped everything since. Funny how the things we do for fun as kids often hold the clearest clues about where we’re meant to go.

Greig Anderson is creative director at Freytag Anderson and AND Golf.

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The Team creates new identity for pregnancy and baby loss charity Sands

The Team has created a new visual and verbal identity for Sands, one of the UK’s leading pregnancy and baby loss charities.

Founded in 1978, Sands supports families and others affected by baby loss, and funds research to prevent baby deaths in the future. In 2023/24, 760,000 people accessed its support and advice services, and Sands was involved in 90 research studies alongside bereaved parents.

The challenge for the charity was that these two parts of its mission didn’t always sit easily together in its branding and communications.

Initially Sands commissioned The Team to carry out a consultation, to see where its existing identity wasn’t working. From those conversations, it emerged that a new look and feel was needed to “better reflect the ambition and breadth of Sands’ work.”

“We needed to do something new in order to make the impact that we wanted to make,” says Alexis Aggett, creative and design lead at Sands. “The initial part of the project was exactly how we usually work – listening to people, and finding out what needs to happen for real change to be made.”

The Team’s new identity for Sands on a brochure

Over the course of 18 months, they ran surveys, workshops and created a steering group to gather as much information from the community as possible. In the end, more than 10,000 pieces of feedback, from thousands of different people, fed into The Team’s work.

On the one hand, they discovered that 24% of people who had experienced baby loss had never heard of Sands. On the other hand, those people who did know Sands sometimes felt unable to access the support it offered.

“If someone’s experienced pregnancy loss, we don’t want them to be questioning if the gestation is far enough along for them to have support,” Aggett says. “Everyone deserves to have their voice heard, so that they can make a difference.”

Sometimes, this very personal, human side of the brand took a back seat to its campaign work.

“The insight part of the charity was very much at the fore, compared to the more emotive, community part,” says The Team design director, Ryan Miller. “That’s a big part of who they are, but it just wasn’t coming across.”

Miller explains that sometimes the identity could show up in a jarring way, because the tone with which they championed the great policy work they do could feel “diametrically opposed” to what grieving parents needed, or expected.

He says it was key that the listening exercise didn’t “shy away from” the very sensitive, emotional nature of baby loss, and the team found that often, “the strongest advocates in the room were the ones that had been on the most traumatic bereavement journeys.”

The aim was to “reconcile” those audiences and draw a line between the two experiences. “That level of in-depth research gave us the knowledge and understanding that meant we could design with confidence,” Aggett says.

The Team’s new identity for Sands

While making the required changes, they also needed to bring people with them for whom the old brand still meant a great deal. Internally, they referred to the work as a “brand strengthening” exercise, rather than a brand refresh, because they found this resonated more strongly with internal stakeholders.

The previous logo, showing a foetus with a teardrop, was found to be “quite divisive” but it “had acquired a huge amount of emotional cachet, because of its longevity,” Miller explains.

The new symbol is more abstract – some people see a heart, some see the outline of a baby in the negative space, others see a speech bubble.

“The ambiguity of the mark is its strength,” Miller says. “In the testing phase, those audiences that needed to see the support tended to see the heart. The audiences who were wanting to be more vocal around baby loss, they see the speech bubble.”

The typeface used for the wordmark is a custom version of a MADE font, which Miller chose for its “natural geometry” and “softness in the detailing.”

The name is moved into lowercase, with the two bookending ‘s’ letterforms representing “saving” and “supporting,” the two main strands of Sands’ work.

The Team’s new identity for Sands

Miller says Aggett pushed The Team to ensure that warmth and humanity showed up across every visual touchpoint. The colour palette is bright and soft, most of the shapes have rounded edges, and texture is used to ground the identity.

They also did a lot of work on the tone of voice, to land on something that could engage both parents and policy-makers, medics and researchers.

“The primary focus was to make our language more relatable and make our mission, our values, and how we work clearer and more succinct,” Aggett says.

The new look has been rolled out across the Sands website and digital channels, but its print and other IRL components will be updated on a rolling basis, to make the changes as sustainable as possible and use the charity’s funds responsibly.

But, Aggett says, they are already seeing the impact of the new branding.

“We knew there was a lot we were doing right, but it wasn’t necessarily translating to who was talking about us and who was coming to us,” she says. “The wonderful thing is that those conversations have already started to happen.”

Aggett says that research has shown that half of the UK adult population have been affected, directly or indirectly, by pregnancy or baby loss. “This is not a niche subject, and so it’s important that we normalise conversations about it,” she says.

Miller agrees, and says they want to lessen the taboos in the same way mental health awareness has transformed over the past 15 years. “We want to get to a point where it’s a lot easier for anyone who’s affected to talk about it.”

The Team’s new website for Sands

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Ministers won’t release research behind GOV.UK brand refresh

The UK Government has refused to release any research or work-in-progress designs related to the recent brand refresh of GOV.UK.

The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) has rejected a Freedom of Information (FOI) request from designer Matt Eason, who was curious to see how the new branding was developed.

He asked to see audience and user research, initial concepts, in-progress designs, and, “any documents, reports or presentations showing the progress of the rebrand, including the GOV.UK logo and wider design language.”

In March last year, the Government Digital Service (GDS) which oversees GOV.UK, awarded a £100,000 contract to user-experience firm Lnet, to provide “research and insight that will inform the development of a new brand identity for GOV.UK.”

It then worked with ad agency M+C Saatchi on the brand refresh, which was tasked with appealing to “the broadest possible audience” across the website, the new GOV.UK app and social media channels.

The project was reported to cost £532,000 and the DSIT published new brand guidelines for GOV.UK in June.

”As we increase the number of places that people meet GOV.UK… we need our brand identity to do more,” the new guidelines explain.

“It needs to be able to compete for attention in busy environments like social media, be equipped to come to life when used in formats including video, while remaining approachable and welcoming for all the people we serve.”

As part of the new identity, the dot in the wordmark moved up off the baseline to make the name look less like a web address, and it was used more broadly as a graphic device across different channels, as a “guiding hand.”

The new guidelines also confirmed the use of primary blue and accent teal as the “core brand colours.”

While the brand refresh – and its cost – received predictable mockery in the right-wing media, Eason’s FOI request is about professional interest.

“It’s not meant to be a gotcha, I’m genuinely curious,” he explains.

Eason is head of design at Fivium, a software company that works with GOV.UK services, and he has implemented some of the new branding across various projects.

“I am really interested to see what the process was from a user-sensitive design point of view,” he says.

“What was the research that pointed to the existing brand not working well for some people? Why did they think that it had room for improvement? What were the different iterations and did they go a bit more wild and wacky with it, because obviously the new logo is fairly similar to the old logo?”

“Is it effective in solving the problems that it was designed to solve? That’s why I want to see the research.”

Eason says he thought it was “a fairly uncontroversial request.” But the DSIT disagreed.

In its reasons for withholding the information, it cites the risks of “premature disclosure” whereby people might, “misinterpret incomplete or preliminary information, leading to unnecessary speculation and concern.”

It also said that, “Ministers and officials require a safe space to discuss and consider strategies that may lead to formal policies without external pressure. Disclosure could inhibit free and frank discussions, leading to less effective policymaking.”

Finally the ministry said some information was already in the public domain, referring to the brand guidelines.

Eason believes the refusal to share the documentation is a missed opportunity to understand how this ambitious government design project played out as a process.

“It’s a very unique brand because it’s meant for almost everyone,” Eason says. “There’s obviously some research that shows it wasn’t trusted enough amongst some areas of the population. It would be really interesting to see why that was, so it could feed into other areas.”

And he thinks that showing “all the thought and care that went into it” might blunt some of the criticism of the project.

But above all, he is frustrated that the decision goes against one of the GDS’ Government Design Principles, which states, “Make things open: it makes things better.”

“We should share what we’re doing whenever we can,” the principles say. “With colleagues, with users, with the world. Share code, share designs, share ideas, share intentions, share failures.”

This idea is re-iterated on the official Design in government blog, whose boilerplate reads, “We believe working in the open makes things better.” Its newsletter is called Open Notes.

Writing on LinkedIn, strategist Adrie van der Luijt was one of several people who echoed Eason’s dismay at the decision.

“The GDS has a long track record of publishing design decisions, user research, even rejected concepts,” he wrote. “That openness has earned trust. It also clearly informs the work of anyone who contributes to GOV.UK and GOV.UK-inspired services.

“If there’s research backing it, let’s see it. If not, we deserve to ask why public money was spent on something so user-facing, with so little transparency.”

The most in-depth context around the brand refresh was published by a frontend developer on the GOV.UK Design System team, who blogs as beeps.

It explains that user research found that many younger people saw GOV.UK as “monolithic, unfriendly, and even intimidating” and points out that the new logo was “just square one of a process that’s going to continue for many more months.”

The article also mounts a robust defence of the money spent on the project, in response to headlines like that in The Daily Mail, which screamed, “Absolutely dotty! Government blows over half a million on ‘vanity’ makeover for website which involved moving a full stop.”

“This perspective only focuses on the logo, and completely ignores the other additions to the brand that are being introduced over time,” beeps writes.

“It ignores that everything was tested, prototyped, refined, and tested again dozens of times with members of the public. It might not be obvious from a single side-by-side graphic, but a lot of time went into interrogating what we had and experimenting with what could be added.

“It was the full-time salaried efforts of dozens of design, development, and delivery specialists for more than a year. By that metric, it’s actually quite cheap.”

Eason plans to appeal the DSIT decision. He says he’s got used to the new designs, although he doesn’t actually think that’s important.

“Personally I like the blue, but I’m not keen on the dot,” he says. “But overall, I don’t really care what my personal feeling about it is. Is it effective in solving the problems that it was designed to solve? That’s why I want to see the research.”

The DSIT did not respond to a request for comment.

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