Branding is synonymous with identity. Catch22 has identified an opportunity to strengthen its connection with young people through a dedicated youth brand. In this blog, Senior Graphic Designer, Courtney Jones, discusses how this initiative will amplify Catch22’s impact, foster engagement, and build a supportive community, as the organisation navigates this transformative journey.
The growth of a brand
Catch22 has a long history. In 1788 The Philanthropic Society was formed in a coffee house, where a group met to discuss homeless children in the area.
Over the 236 years that have followed, not only has our organisational name changed, but so has the visual language used to communicate our values. Furthermore, the rise of digital, and the prominence of social media has meant that charities like ours need to think deeper about the audience they are addressing.
The Catch22 brand is strong: we’ve spent the last four years tightening the design to make it a more recognisable brand. However, it has become clear that this does not work for all of our audiences – particularly young people.
Understanding our audience
The first step in creating a successful youth brand is understanding the audience. Today’s youth, predominantly Gen Z, are characterised by their digital nativeness, social consciousness, and desire for authenticity. They value brands that stand for more than just profit – those that champion causes, advocate for change, and provide genuine value.
Catch22’s mission of supporting vulnerable young people and their families aligns well with these values. By addressing issues like justice, education, employment, and health and wellbeing, Catch22 resonates deeply with this demographic. However, translating this mission into a youth-centric brand requires a nuanced approach.
In March 2024, we began development of a Catch22 youth brand. The primary aim was to increase referrals to a number of youth-facing services that allow self-referrals: including our employability and substance misuse services. We also wanted to prepare for the growing need to increase our presence on social media channels such as TikTok and Instagram.
Throughout this process, we knew how important it would be to include young people in the creation of this branch of our brand from the very start of the project. After all, they are the people who it will be designed for. To achieve this, we conducted interviews with key stakeholders, including Catch22 staff who work with young people and, most importantly, young people from across Catch22’s services.
We learnt a lot.
Building a blueprint
The workshops we ran for young people were integral in learning about what today’s young people look for in a brand, what the Catch22 brand means to them, and how we can best communicate with the younger generation.
Tasks in these workshops included:
- writing taglines,
- choosing their favourite existing logos, and
- designing their own logo for Catch22.
The findings from these workshops were both incredibly insightful and surprising and have informed all of the work that has followed. They revealed that, although the brand is intended to target teenagers, they do not appreciate being addressed in a manner that feels condescending or childish. Consequently, we have steered away from a design with overly juvenile elements, as our audience has told us that this would be ineffective.
In conversations with the young people, it also became clear that expression and motivation was preferred over explanation when it comes to logos. Rather than having a logo that you can look at and understand everything we do, they want a logo that will make them feel like they want to be part of something. This adds an extra level of complexity because emotions differ from one person to another.
Turning ideas into actions
At this point, the penny dropped: our young people don’t want a typical “teen” brand with jaunty angles and childish typeface; they want something that oozes cool, and that they would be proud to display on social media or even a t-shirt. This ties in with the initial findings that showed they did not want to be talked down to.
This idea of an “aspirational” rather than “juvenile” logo slots in perfectly with Catch22’s vision – we support people to improve their lives and help them to find the motivation to do so.
The project is now entering the design phase. As we near the end of the project, we will be including young people in focus groups once more to ensure we have listened to and acted successfully on what young people want to see from Catch22.
Watch this space…