Forest YMCA Case Study

Forest YMCA has been transforming the lives of young people in East London for around 40 years. They provide accommodation for the homeless as well as a providing them with education, training and a safe place for the local community to have fun and take part in their activities such as their gym, dance classes etc. As a charity based organisation their marketing spend has to warrant results perhaps more so than the majority of our clients.

THE BRIEF

To develop “Forest YMCA” as a brand, enhancing their own individual identity whilst still being recognisable as being part of the wider YMCA family.

THE SOLUTION

A thorough branding process was commissioned which begun with our designers understanding and researching the history, beliefs and ideas of Forest YMCA.  They also looked at the possibility of creating sub brands within the YMCA to represent Childcare, housing services etc. During the branding process, we provided YMCA with an extensive brand guidelines document, explaining the elements of the branding and how it must be used internally and how external contacts such as printers and uniform suppliers must use the brand to ensure all elements stay coherent.

THE RESULTS

The main Forest YMCA logo incorporates the infamous YMCA red triangle, however the elements of the logo set Forest YMCA aside as an individual with the colours and design. We used the red triangle in the sub brands in various ways to distinguish one another, for example the family and childcare logo uses the triangle to represent a kite whilst the housing services logo has the triangle as a roof.

The branding was then utilised on all letterheads, business cards, email footers and uniform etc. Following this branding excercise we then went on to develop YMCA’s website, again integrating the colours and logo to really give the brand a unified feel.