Common Ground

Challenge

The organisation had been housing people for twenty-two years under a name that explained none of it. Funders confused it with two other charities, the team introduced themselves with a paragraph of context, and the mission — never in doubt internally — was invisible from the outside.

Strategy

We ran the naming as a strategy exercise, not a word game. Before generating a single option we agreed what the organisation would refuse to say: no metaphors about journeys, no words the residents would not use themselves. That constraint produced a shortlist of four in three weeks.

Strategy

We ran the naming as a strategy exercise, not a word game. Before generating a single option we agreed what the organisation would refuse to say: no metaphors about journeys, no words the residents would not use themselves. That constraint produced a shortlist of four in three weeks.

Website

Common Ground is a name residents use without translation. The identity is built from the housing plans themselves, with a type system that works at grant-application scale and on a hoarding. The guidelines are eleven pages, because anything longer does not get read.

Website

Common Ground is a name residents use without translation. The identity is built from the housing plans themselves, with a type system that works at grant-application scale and on a hoarding. The guidelines are eleven pages, because anything longer does not get read.

Outcome

Two major funders cited the clarity of the rebrand in their grant decisions. Volunteer sign-ups rose 45% in the first year. Staff stopped explaining the name and started explaining the work.

Outcome

Two major funders cited the clarity of the rebrand in their grant decisions. Volunteer sign-ups rose 45% in the first year. Staff stopped explaining the name and started explaining the work.

Challenge

Strategy

Strategy

Website

Website

Outcome

Outcome

The result

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Next case

Northwind

Next case

Northwind

Next case

Northwind