Where you live, how much you earn, whether you have a disability, your access to services and many other factors can affect your health. Since 2014, it has been cohealth’s mission to tackle this inequality.
cohealth is a not-for-profit, secular, community health organisation that responds to people’s needs by delivering a wide range of low cost, high-quality, accessible health care and support services. Their 5 year Strategic Plan outlined the changing social, political and ecological environment which would be the driving force to inspire an evolving business model. A part of the cohealth evolution is the broadening of their service model through new "profit-for-purpose" clinics, in addition to their community health clinics, hybrid clinics and other programs and initiatives.
How could cohealth unify and name this diverse service offering? cohealth engaged Liquorice to help them address this challenge and build a stronger brand with a refreshed brand architecture, identity, tagline, naming and more.
The benefits of codesign
Co-design is an approach that enables cohealth and its audiences to design, construct and deliver services, products, programs and more, together in partnership.
It was critical to the success of the project that we integrated this method of working from the beginning, to include clients and communities in decisions that affect them, ensuring that the outcome is meaningful and empowering for the people who matter most.
Through online surveys and face-to-face interviews, we ran codesign activities with stakeholders from many different backgrounds, including community and full-fee-paying clients, health professionals, cohealth staff, arts program participants and more. Through these activities, we were able to see points-of-view from every corner of the community and gain precious insights.
We quickly learned that the same concepts, words or images, seen by different individuals, can mean countless things. Phrases like "Community health" and "Allied health" were not as widely understood as we initially expected and interiors some people felt were homely were seen by others as cold or isolating. The codesign process allowed us to challenge our preconceptions, rethink our approach and dig deep in search of a truly inclusive solution.
A unified cohealth
Together with cohealth and our codesign participants, we tested and re-tested the brand architecture and tagline options, ultimately reaching one ideal solution for a unified cohealth.
When it came to testing taglines, "Care for all" emerged as a clear preference above all others, resonating with staff and clients alike as the most powerful description of cohealth's mission and personality. This tagline also informed the way we visualised the cohealth model. The cohealth model describes the methods cohealth use to pursue health and social equity: care for individuals, care for the community and care for society. Each is interrelated, contributing to a holistic approach which further supports the "Care for all" tagline.
Bringing the brand to life
The new cohealth brand identity and graphic language is built around an optimistic, energetic and transformative gradient device. It's vibrant but not overpowering, with soft curves and soothing colours. While the logotype itself remained relatively unchanged, we updated the logo lock-ups and accompanying brand assets, colour palette and iconography. Another key feature of the refreshed brand is a suite of diverse illustrations, representing the whole cohealth community.
A high level of trust between a research interviewer and client needs to be established early to deliver an authentic codesign process. Liquorice did this, working with complete authenticity. They were kind, adaptable, safe and reliable for our cohort groups, many with varying lived experiences. It was also clear that Liquorice enjoyed working with people collaboratively and sensitively. We experienced a 100 percent participation rate from our client groups over two rounds of codesign. An amazing result that fuelled the delivery of a strong brand.
To ensure cohealth would be able to take this new brand and run with it, we created a comprehensive suite of brand templates along with a detailed styleguide, giving them the practical tools they needed to create new materials well into the future.
The brand has landed well with our staff, particularly the elements that represent calm and welcoming and those more lively elements that depict diversity and inclusivity. It's clear that this brand is strong and will hold us well into the future.