Social Life Opportunities

Transforming a charity, whilst keeping it familiar: Social Life Opportunities

The Brief

A charity which enables people with physical and mental disabilities to enjoy an active social life, Social Life Opportunities was hampered by a confusing name (Solo – short for Solihull Life Opportunities) and by communications which didn’t do it justice. Our recommendation was that the ‘Solihull’ be changed to ‘Social’, with the long form of the name being used by default. Thus those who knew & loved the charity could continue to use the ‘Solo’ moniker. At the same time, new service users (‘members’) could be attracted via a striking new identity and website - and not led to think, as our research highlighted, that it might be a dating agency.

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What we did

  • Brand and Creative Strategy
  • Brand Discovery
  • Branding & Identity
  • Copywriting
  • Logo Design
  • Naming
  • Stakeholder research
  • Website Design
    An important function of the website is to show all of the social activities, filtered according to age and ability. Members can then select, book and pay for their chosen events.
    The previous visual ID relied heavily on rectangles in four solid colours. Using more sophisticated shades and an infinite variety of irregular quadrilaterals, we created a degree of continuity whilst providing a flexible identity tool which chimes with SoLO’s totally inclusive, all-shapes-and-sizes membership.
    We use different colour combinations for material aimed at different age groups. Many of Social Life Opportunities’ members live with mental conditions which make them great lovers of order and precision, so touches like this have great appeal.
    All illustrations are constructed from four-sided blocks of colour and incorporate a strongly branded yet fun approach. Every shape used is different to represent the diversity in members. These playful illustrations symbolise SoLO’s friendly and open nature and reflect their personal and human approach to everything they do.
    Our toolkit contains both ready-to-use materials such as Gift Aid forms and job pack templates, plus user-friendly guides for applying the brand.
    We find that, by making visual guidelines enjoyable to go through, they are more likely to be used and thus the brand consistently applied.
    We chose Century Gothic as the primary typeface because it feels friendly yet professional and is accessible to those with learning disabilities.
      Our in-depth ‘Keeping the SoLO website up-to-date’ guide makes it easy for the in-house team to make changes. It covers everything from adding and removing news posts, to creating events, job opportunities and managing the events calendar.

      “Everything – even application forms – now looks professional and does justice to our amazing staff and services.”

      Maria BrownFundraising Coordinator, Social Life Opportunities

      “Staff and volunteers alike really appreciated being consulted. It made a big difference. ”

      Karen SwinburnCEO, Social Life Opportunities

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