Aberdeen Community Safety Partnership

  • Michael Ridley

Reframing a corporate union into a friendlier alternative 

Aberdeen Community Safety Partnership were looking to add some vigour to their communications with a new brand identity. The partnership looks at tackling crime and disorder having recently launched a new hub for multi-agency coordination and hot desks to provide a forum for the city community. 
Power to the people. Ultimately I decided that it’s the people who make communities safer. They can strengthen, enliven and improve towns, districts and cities - like the metaphorical ‘shields’ safeguarding the principles of a better society. It was this premise that inspired the design.
The design uses the four banner agencies that work within the hub as its base (Aberdeen City Council, Grampian Police, Grampian Fire & Rescue Service and NHS Grampian) and the interaction and overlapping of these multiple disciplines is represented by the semi-translucent shapes, which are unified together as one symbol. 
Tone of voice. The forms created were meant to highlight a forum that deals with the complexities of being both authoritative and friendly. The type furthers this approachable nature with its more human qualities articulating a brand voice that speaks to people as a community institution rather than a corporate pretence, allowing the partnership’s audience to comfortably engage with its practices.