National Audit Office core rebrand
Extensive core rebrand of the National Audit Office. This project was undertaken across a year, I had the great opportunity to work with an excellent team and contributed to deliver various aspects of the project. I have documented below the parts of rebrand I was responsible for.
Development of main core colour identity
I decided to develop the main core colour based on the 2 colours of the most prominent political parties – to symbolise neutrality which adhered to one of the NAO’s main priorities. This colour lent itself to both sides of the colour wheel (warm and cool), and would be complimentary with the secondary palettes that I planned to develop. I introduced checking for colour accessibility – a key underpinning in developing the new brand, enabling the NAO to become future-proof wih accessibility requirements from a visual comms perspective – and moving away from the previous un-accessible, outdated colour system.
Development of secondary colour palettes for wayfinding and data
Next came the development of the secondary colour palettes. I decided to design these to be used to aid wayfinding through the NAO’s different product categories, and the appear in data visuals in all outputs. I also decided to name them as the palette would ultimately become large and this would help designers (and non-design members who had access) identify them efficiently. Using my knowledge of colour theory and psychology, these were developed to be visually contrasting enough to clearly define a product category. After presenting my ideas and showing the methodology and robustness to my team, the idea was selected for development, I handed the project over to a colleague who worked from the selection of colours to ensure accessibility compatibility when used together in data visuals. Some colours had to be removed of tweaked as a result of testing, but ultimately my model and idea were the foundation for this successful part of the project.
Development of a symbolic ident
The next part of the project was to develop an ident for the NAO – a visual component that could be used across multiple outputs and tie in NAO outputs as a cohesive brand. This hadn’t previously existed. I decided to develop and draw on the existing logo for inspiration, exploring round themes, inspired by a cog working in a machine, symbolising the cycle of auditing across a year, the cypher of audit process through to the final designed output and representing the various departments within the business that enable a smooth delivery of products. The ident (1) was chosen as a team to develop and explore further.
Report front cover development
Following on from the team agreeing on the ident going forward, I developed and explored different ways the ident could be used across the NAO’s main reports, and presented different ways the roundel identity (chosen identity concept) could be adapted and utilised further. After presenting the concepts to the team, we decided to take the shown one forward, the below video shows the chosen cover and how it evolved with colour palettes and eventually the ‘pill’ wayfinding element to tie in our brand across the digital UX brand development.
Financial Audit ident development
After the core brand was in place, and the colour palettes were tested and developed further, the next step taken was development of an ident for a sub stream of work. The brief was to create an identity supporting the core brand and colour palettes for a new Financial Audit identity, an arm of work the NAO supplies. I explored different identities inspired by precision and utilising the roundel to further tie into the core brand. The full concept document including rational and cutting room floor ideas can be viewed here.
Website wayfinding development and UI exploration – the ‘pill’ and new colour identities
3 years after the new brand had been well established, the NAO website was up for re-development. I explored ways to tie in the brand to the existing colour palette and categories, and developed a user-friendly UI ident to aid wayfinding and simplify an overly complex existing catalogue. This ident, called the ‘pill’ , became incorporated into social media content and all other printed and digital publications, to create a cohesive identity across the NAO’s products.
This project also involved evolving our secondary colour palettes further to develop a new colour for a series of products the NAO produces, and a colour for the website that encompasses 2 products the NAO produce, enabling clarity of cataloguing items on a full, content-rich website. The process of the colour development was a thorough and robust approach, with testing and limitations explored fully. The final wayfinding document can be see here.
