NHS ICS | joshcutts

NHS: Birmingham & Solihull Integrated Care System

Brief:

The combined health NHS services of Birmingham and Solihull were forming an Integrated Care System (or ICS). This was a requirement form the British government and an attempt to make patients journeys across different hospitals (such as referrals) simpler and easier to communicate.

Process:

I worked with another designer to create a simple and optimistic brand that was utilised across a number of touch points and assets (email signatures, desktop screen savers, web pages, social media assets, numerous poster and printed materials and power point presentations). We had to navigate a complex brief, whilst showing presentations to up to 15 people at a time and then adequately address any feedback that might be given (whether that was to amend or

justify why certain choices were made).

Initial concepts:

The initial routes I presented were focused on joined up care and ease of use. Other NHS ICS's websites can often be messy and hard to read, leading to a lack of legitimacy and patients neither understanding their function/services so it was really important to me and the team to make sure the output was clean, professional and optimistic. The first route focused on an arrow and the colour green, promoting themes of growth and thriving. The second route utilises a simple pattern device of overlapping circles (like a venn diagram) to represent Birmingham and Solihull's heath services coming together.

Concept 1

Concept 2

Outcome:

The end result was not only a brand that would be seen by thousands, but also one that sought to unify a number of hospitals, doctors and patients under one banner. The Monogram shows both a heart and 2 people, formed by a ribbon like vector that becomes a pattern across other touch points (often weaving in and out of photography, again representing joined up care).