Homes, Hope, Community: the story behind our new look.
In October, Restore will have existed as an organisation for fifteen years, and we are excited to celebrate that milestone. Beyond this will come the anniversary of us signing the lease on our first house; welcoming our first resident, and so on. If it’s true that from small acorns great oak trees grow, then this is a perfect opportunity to look back on the early days of Restore and reflect on the faithfulness of God over the last fifteen years, as we’ve clearly seen His hand at work, helping us to expand our provision and services.
To commemorate the moment, we wanted to refresh our look, to represent the change in our vision for Restore as we look forward to the next fifteen years. Whilst our focus remains unchanged: demonstrating the love of God to the marginalised by providing homes to those experiencing homelessness, the way in which we fulfil that vision has naturally evolved over the years. For example, we’ve added follow-on support for former residents as they move into their own tenancies. We’ve implemented greater opportunities for social activities, so that residents can meet up with one another and build a sense of community. We’ve expanded our remit to cover refugee family groups, as well as individual residents. More recently, we’ve opened our hub groups (you can re-read our February blog for more information on these) and initiated two peer-support groups, so that Restore residents, past and present, can meet up to help and advise one another on their journeys.
Please don’t misunderstand; it isn’t that we disliked our old logo. We’ve used it for a long time and it encapsulated what we do very well: a roof shape over the word Restore, with the T of the word represented as a cross to emphasise that we are - first and foremost – a Christian organisation. However, our upcoming anniversary felt like the opportune time to incorporate some of those changes we’ve just mentioned into the design as well. To this end, we commissioned Laura Sanderson from Art Is My Career to refresh our look. She came highly recommended, as she’s already worked with our friends at Chocolate and Co on their website, so we knew we could trust her to produce something high quality, that reflected the aims and ethos of Restore.
We had several meetings with Laura to thrash out various different versions of our rebranding. Representatives from the staff team, the board of trustees and our resident cohort were included in a brand council, that gave Laura the direction she needed to bring the vision to life. It was important to us to keep the cross and the housing image integral to the design. We also wanted the new look to represent hope for the future, fresh starts and brighter futures, reflecting the positive changes we long to see in each Restore resident’s life. Additionally, we wanted the design to reflect the importance we place on community, as we encourage residents to support one another on their path out of homelessness and to a life beyond Restore.
Seeing the new design for the first time was incredibly exciting. It encapsulates all that we want Restore to be about. The letter ‘O’ has a house shape in the centre, showing our primary purpose of providing homes to those who need one. The letter ‘E’s have an upward pointing bar, representing the positive trajectory we want all of our residents to achieve with our support. The logo keeps the cross of Christ central. The words ‘Homes, Hope, Community’ underneath express simply and clearly our main aims as the organisation.
Beyond the main logo, we also have our brand assets. These illustrations are all reproduced in a range of bright, positive colours, embodying hope and optimism. The variety of different buildings, shapes and colours reflects that each resident is an individual and it is the whole community working together that is more than simply the sum of its parts. The fact that we can reconfigure these assets in any number of different patterns echoes the shifting nature of Restore’s resident population, as some people move on and new members move in to join our community. Furthermore, it emphasises the personalised support we offer: each resident’s path is tailored to their individual needs and objectives. There are oversized keys, to represent those ‘key picture’ moments, which are so iconically Restore and still a primary goal for every resident. There is a bike, to symbolise that time at Restore is a journey out of homelessness (and let’s face it, we do end up getting a lot of our residents bikes)! Bright sunshine and foliage complete the look, signifying the growth that happens in our residents' lives when they fully engage with the support on offer.
It's been a long process behind the scenes to get to the point where we are ready to launch, but looking at the finished result, it’s definitely been worth it. A massive thank you to Laura for her hard work bringing us to this point. We are delighted with the way the whole look comes together and really personifies who we are as a charity. We hope you like it too, and are excited to see the full roll-out as we begin to implement the new design on our socials over the coming weeks.
Please explore the website fully to see the new brand in all its glory, and do let us know what you think!