The McGuire Programme brand identity

Sixty six million people stammer worldwide. Little is known about why, and despite there being no cure, The McGuire Programme is providing effective therapeutic coaching to help sufferers manage their difficulties.

Founded in 1994, the organisation is run entirely by people who are conquering their own stutters and who work towards transforming lives. Their visual language however, lacked in the confidence and consistency the organisation needed to grow their brand and reputation.

The McGuire Programme brand identityThe McGuire Programme’s previous website design.

As part of an internal initiative, Purpose approached The McGuire Programme with a view to creating an identity that truly reflected the strengths of the organisation, and equip them with the tools they would need to create a strong, recognisable brand.

Purpose developed a core thought, “Beyond Stuttering,” which helped to inform the new confident visual and verbal language. Simple graphic speech bubbles are readily adapted as a communication device and campaigning banner, which helps lay the foundation for a growing image bank. The two-colour approach has created a level of consistency throughout all their marketing communications, whilst being a very cost-effective solution – a top priority for a non-profit organisation.

The new identity is transforming The McGuire Programme into a stronger, more prominent brand, helping them really stand out from their competitors and ultimately get their voice heard.

The McGuire Programme brand identity

The McGuire Programme brand identity

The McGuire Programme brand identity

The McGuire Programme brand identity

The McGuire Programme logo

The McGuire Programme brand identity

The McGuire Programme brand identity

The McGuire Programme brand identity

The McGuire Programme brand identity

The McGuire Programme brand identity

The McGuire Programme brand identity

The McGuire Programme brand identity

The McGuire Programme brand identity

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Comments

The cards “beyond stuttering” and the logo look like teeth that are going to crush you, don’ they? Otherwise: I like the campaign overall and think the framed posters in particular use an effective typographic design. Good use of limited colors.

As a stutterer myself, I love the imagery and composition of some of these. The “Speak Your (Mind)” one particularly got my attention as it can feel that a word is trapped inside your head when you encounter a block in your speech.

This is great, throughout. Like the bold simple colours and use of space. Particularly like the speech bubbles making the ‘M’ in the logo – brilliant. Great work.

I loved the concept, colors and uses until I saw the logo.

It turned me off and actually kind of scared me.

What do vampires have to do with The McGuire Programme?

Other than that, I think the approach and concept was right on.

Just noticed the M in between the speech bubbles which now looks good. I still think they should have refined it a little more to look less scary, but that’s my opinion.

Firstly, thank you very much David Airey for the post, and thank you all for the comments.

@Karl – it’s really great to hear that as a person who does stutter, you relate to the identity and that you like it. Thanks for the feedback!

@Christian & @Kurt – it’s unfortunate that you see ‘teeth’ in the logo when it’s isolated, the intention is an ‘M’ in the negative space (akin to the arrow in FedEx). Hopefully when you see the speech bubble working in application and in communications, it looks less like a ‘vampire’ and more like a speech bubble… Hopefully! : )

Thanks for the feedback all.

@Sean – Honestly, right after I posted that first comment, I scrolled up and looked at the logo one more time and the “M” popped right out at me, very much like the FedEx logo.

Now, the more and more I look at it, I’m liking the boldness of the “M” as well as the complementary speech bubbles that have been used consistently throughout the entire project.

Excellent execution!

A simple, strong idea consistently applied with a particularly nice use of “hidden” images – especially on the iceberg and ribs.

The ‘M’ jumped right out at me.

This is excellent, from concept, to use of colour, to visuals – especially the visual messages – right through to execution. Great job.

@David – The same reason not everybody sees the arrow in the FedEx logo. I agree that the M is really prominent now, but at first glance, I wasn’t looking for the M and just saw the speech bubbles.

But now, since I’ve seen it already, it’s impossible not to see it.

How to not see the M: the round edges of the bubbles make it harder to see the M as no M would have the kind of spoilers created by the bubbles in the negative space that creates the M.

Really liking this, I’m a sucker for two colour stuff so this is right up my street. I agree with some of the posts earlier, the logo is perhaps slightly weaker than the art direction of the adverts/posters etc.

The only thing that leaves me slightly cold are the stock images used on some of the adverts. The messages are really powerful (particularly the one about ordering a drink that he can say not the drink that he wants – this is really though provoking and probably the strongest concept IMO maybe more could have been made of this angle?) It’s just the images are perhaps a bit too generic.

That said, I don’t know where these adverts would appear, maybe the target audience would respond positively to more ‘conventional’ art direction?

Really love the two colour posters though, are these appearing on subway escalator panels? If so the repetition of these would work really well.

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