Project Overview
The Royal Melbourne will always be an icon. But there comes a time when even one like Melbourne’s first hospital needs to break from tradition and set its sights on the future.
Project Commissioner
Project Creator
Team
Tim Riches, Group Strategy Director
Charlie Rose, Associate Strategy Director
Marine Piersotte, Strategy Executive
Pip Ireland, Creative Director
Jacob Mahoney, Design Director
Sam Baines, Senior Designer
Min Shin, Designer
David Cunningham, Head of Production
Ben Williams, Artworker
Mat Hyde, Business Director
Chloe Lawrence-Hartcher, Senior Account Manager
Debra Fisher, Account Manager
Project Brief
As Australia’s health ecosystem became more complex and competitive, it was time to rethink this iconic brand from the ground up. Shifting from The Royal Melbourne Hospital to Melbourne Health allowed an expansion of services and began the implementation of a new 5-year strategic plan. Somewhere along the way though, they lost their identity. Employees weren’t sure who they worked for and the hospital’s fundraising efforts fell short. It was time to clearly and confidently define who they were – and reassert their status as Australia’s leading health service.
Project Innovation/Need
The shift from The Royal Melbourne Hospital to Melbourne Health left employees unsure of who they worked for. We needed to hear from them to create support for the new brand, and more importantly, to uncover what made RMH unique.
Working closely with employees, volunteers and consumer advocates, we started to figure out what defined the hospital’s culture. We engaged over 1000 employees through interviews, discussion groups and an organisation-wide survey – to better understand what motivates the staff, defines the culture and what the future of RMH could look like.
Co-creation workshops let us hear from a cross-section of RMH people including volunteers, nurses, doctors and admin staff. This integrated approach gave us authentic insights and recommendations for communication, recruitment, donation and cultural diversity.
We took a similar approach to the visual identity. We explored how far we could move away from the brand’s visual heritage before sharing the creative work with employees, volunteers and consumer advocates for their feedback. The result is a brand that speaks to a strong heritage, while staying focused on the future.
The final piece was updating their purpose, ‘Advancing health for everyone every day’. And a community promise, ‘Always there when it matters most’. These capture two sides of a unique organisation and speak to the hospital’s role in supporting Melbournians at their most vulnerable. Everything comes together under a new brand architecture that showcases RMH’s full range of capabilities.
Design Challenge
As Melbourne’s first hospital, we needed to honour the original identity while still making it modern. The updated visual identity and brand personality is a simplified, digital-friendly evolution of the much-loved heritage crest. A fresh, candid photography style highlights the commitment and care provided by RMH and engages the community on an emotional level.
The visual identity system shows how world-leading biomedical science and real people come together to solve big health problems. These elements are all united under a new brand architecture that showcases RMH’s true range of capability in communities and in the broader health sector.
Effectiveness
The new RMH brand is a more cohesive, human-focused brand that reflects the Hospital’s reputation as a science-driven network of excellence that’s focused on advancing health for everyone. With the support and contribution of employees, the RMH brand also reflects what the organisation is today and what they want to be in future.
Engaging and inclusive, the new identity restores The Royal Melbourne Hospital to their status as Australia’s leading health service.
Tags
Graphic Design - Identity and Branding - Health
This award celebrates creative and innovative design in the traditional or digital visual representation of ideas and messages. Consideration given to clarity of communication and the matching information style to audience.
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