Member Article

Future Of Liverpool Design Studio Looks ‘Hopeful’ As It Unveils New Rebrand

A Liverpool based design studio that has built a reputation for helping some of the UK’s most noticeable third sector companies is rebranding to Hopeful.

Formally known as Design Integrity, which was launched by Creative Director and Founder Stephen Murray in 2017, the team decided to change their name to fit more in line with their ethos and values, as their work with social enterprises and charities makes up 76% of their overall workload.

Stephen said: “Over time, a pattern occurred. We’d consistently and organically built amazing relationships with charities and social enterprises and the brands that invested in us were brands willing enough to disrupt their market and contribute a sense of change in the world around us.

“Hopeful speaks for itself, with its purpose being to dedicate itself to help develop those brands that cultivate growth and make the world a better place. Brands that want to make a difference and positive change, not just within the local community, but nationally. Helping brands help people is our mandate, and our passion is that organisations are heard, seen and understood.”

Currently an in-house team of four, specialising in brand development and website platforms, the creative studio is on a mission to ‘extract true authentic values from within organisations and develop these values into heartfelt and inclusive brand experiences’.

One of their most recent projects was to re-brand Homeshare UK, which acts as an alternative to other types of home-based support by bringing together people with spare rooms with people who are happy to chat and lend a hand around the house in return for affordable, sociable accommodation.

The studio built a wellbeing data collection tool that helps the organisation measure the schemes care quality, by collecting experiential feedback. The tool outputs the feedback data in a branded dynamic infographic, allowing the team to quickly absorb critical information, enjoyably.

Deborah Fox, Head of Homeshare UK, said: “Building relationships and providing support to our social franchisees and network members is at the heart of what we do, therefore, our brief for Hopeful Studio was to update our branding to represent these connections whilst remaining credible but also disruptive in the sector. We really enjoyed working with Hopeful; it was a smooth process and they have created a modern, powerful, and abstract brand for us.”

Stephen, who originally started the business having spent more than a decade contracting as a designer & creative thinker for local agencies like Mando Group and national enterprises like Very Group, working on multi-million-pound campaigns for global clients, added: “We are dedicated to connecting human-centred brands to conscientious people and working alongside this incredible charity really grounded what it meant to us to be in the creative industry. It’s all about helping them be authentic and attracting them the right kind of attention, attention they deserve.”

Another exciting project for Hopeful is the brand and digital development for tech start up Audio Harvest, which develops technology that turns website content into automated podcasts; vastly improving how people learn and absorb information as well as improving how organisations distribute their material. A digital friendly illustration suite was also developed to help communicate the principles of the tool.

The brand and digital project hit an amazing 70% uplift post launch in its first three months. It continues to bring the business thriving publicity and engagement.

Dominic Finney, Co-Founder of Audio Harvest, said: “From beginning to end one it is of the best projects I have run via a third party. The whole team delivered on what they said they would deliver, and they responded quickly to questions and queries. In short they are a top website development team, and I would highly recommend them.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Emma McGee .