Tayburn launches Skills for Care site
National agency, Skills for Care has relaunched its website providing advice and guidance for those looking for information on funding, education and training within the adult care sector.
The organisation, which is responsible for the strategic development of around one million social care staff in England, commissioned design agency, Tayburn to produce a website linking all nine regional committees with its headquarters in Leeds.
Tayburn conducted a project definition workshop designed to identify the requirements of the job. However, the workshop revealed that there was little brand consistency and Tayburn concluded that Skills for Care needed to address its identity before proceeding with enhancing its online presence. “It became quite evident in the early stages that Skills for Care didn’t have a coherent brand”, said Paul Brooks, senior account manager at Tayburn.
“There are nine regional offices, each with its own agenda that matches the social and economic requirements of its geographic location and this was reflected in the array of different formats each used to promote its service. While it was important for the regions to retain their local relevance, we needed to ensure that all the communications tied in with the national brand. Our job was to create a visual identity which brought everything back in line.”
Tayburn undertook research to come up with a consistent theme without diluting the regions key messages. The result was to redraw part of the original Skills for Care logo to mimic speech marks, allowing each regional website to concentrate on its own set of objectives, while the speech marks provided the common thread connecting back to the national site. These speech marks were incorporated into all marketing communications, giving the brand a ‘voice’ and reinforcing Skills for Care’s position as an expert voice in social care.
“Tayburn’s work in identifying a visual identity for Skills for Care’s communications was a complex task. The team orchestrated a huge consultation process which resulted in the creation of a consistent identity that unified all the regions under the Skills for Care brand and we’re very pleased with what has been produced”, said Nicola Devereux, marketing manager at Skills for Care.
Brooks continued: “By using the speech marks to illustrate quotes based on the organisation’s strategic objectives, the issue of brand consistency was resolved and we could then replicate it online.
“Being a government agency, we understood resources were limited, so we created detailed guidelines giving clear instruction of the brand’s parameters and commissioned photography for a generic image library which could be used, royalty free, in future marketing activity. We also created templates so that on-going work on the site and the production of additional marketing material, could be done in house, saving money and without compromising the brand’s identity.”