Hassle Free Clinic
Print/Brand Communications
Print/Brand Communications
Print/Brand Communications
Print/Brand Communications
Print/Brand Communications
Print/Brand Communications
Print/Brand Communications
Print/Brand Communications
Print/Brand Communications
Designer(s)
Colin Coulson
Duration
0 Weeks
Recognitions
The Problem
When reading through the history of the Hassle Free Clinic I noted their narrative lacking. The unique and fascinating personality of the clinic is clearly not conveyed through their visual identity. Their self-sacrificing, diverse, hard-working directive, missing. Known for their rule-breaking in order to provide for their clients, they break rules in the process, which is not expressed in their identity. This strong rebellious and potentially bold personality is hidden behind a lacklustre medical mask. Through my research, the emerging challenge was the disconnected brand identity, in that the logo and visual identity misrepresent the history and the personality of the clinic. Their identity does not speak to the majority gay and trans community they serve. Hassle Free Clinics' redesign creates a unique brand identity that captures the inspiring and inclusive personality that is hidden behind a generic, flat medical logo.
Gender Symbols
The goal is to make Hassle Free Clinic more recognizable to the people and reflect the impact which the clinic has brought to them. I decided to create a dynamic logotype representing the inclusive nature of the clinic's history and services. Hassle Free Clinic clients/customers are men, women, members of the trans and LGBTQ+ communities. I used their target audience as inspiration selecting the seven colours of the pride flag to create the dynamic system. I broke down all of the gender symbols and created icons that represented each symbol's different characteristics. Using the seven colours, I made a system for the symbols so the same colour would not appear twice unless an icon occurred twice. The gender symbol system required multiple iterations to adjust the symbols' sizing and weight so that they appeared balanced.
Dynamic logo
Hassle Free Clinic’s philosophy is to work from an anti-oppression framework that recognizes and respects the diversity of Toronto’s communities. The new logo represents this philosophy by breaking down the characteristics of the gender symbols and using them as the four main symbols of the logomark, combining the individual symbols to represent the male, female and transgender symbols respectively in a two by two grid. The logomark is accompanied by a logotype set in Quicksand for its rounded terminals and shared characteristics with the logomark. To make the new brand identity dynamic, the individual icons are placed into the two by two grid to represent each unique gender. To keep consistency, the circle icon is always placed in the bottom right space. The top right space is filled next to accommodate the gender symbols with only two icons. Followed by the bottom left and then the top left space.
Logo Variations and Brand Manual
I knew that the logomark and logotype would not be appropriate in smaller environments. First, I took the symbols and laid them in a line without the wordmark to create a condensed version of the logo. I then also felt it was necessary to develop a wordmark of HFC. using the four main symbols' colours. This allows the user to identify the clinic with the organization of the four colours and icons. A brand manual was then made to outline the rules and application of the new brand identity. The complete brand manual can be accessed by clicking the link below. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1SO2XYV_8k9p6-nvmErQgy-hxEferLmoq/view?usp=sharing
