Getting started with the Healthwatch brand
Our brand is more than a logo. The way we speak, write and look shows people what we stand for and why the Healthwatch service is relevant to them.
That's why over 100 staff and volunteers, as well as the public and stakeholders, helped us test our voice and look, so that we could create a strong brand that people can recognise and trust.
This page includes everything you need to get started and update the brand locally.
What does the language guidance include?
All you need to put the brand language into action are the following key documents:
1. Brand messaging guide: A one-page cheat sheet, including our strap line, proposition, tone of voice, and messages for different audiences. (Also available as a full document for printing.)
2. Healthwatch descriptors: Short and long ‘about us’ text describing Healthwatch England and local Healthwatch. This also includes text you can copy/paste for your website and social media, as well as a handy checklist.
3. Brand language guide: Includes top tips to write in our tone of voice, a style guide, writing about people and an accessibility checklist.
Actions to put the language guide into practice
- Update the descriptors on your website and social media profiles. You'll also want to make sure you use the new descriptors in any reports or branded materials going forward.
- Read through the new tone of voice and campaign messages. See how you can start to use these in your day-to-day social media, any online adverts, and in your email marketing.
- Use the campaign messages to respond to online comments and help bring out your impact. The campaign messages tackle some of the main concerns the public have, addressing questions about how sharing their story can help when it can seem as though "nothing ever changes", and how to understand the complex language around the healthcare system.
- Read through the style guide to ensure you're not using jargon or acronyms such as BAME or BME.
What do the visual brand guidelines include?
We worked with you to see what improvements could make the Healthwatch brand stand out more and be easier to use.
You can download our visual guidelines below. The guide includes fonts, colours, guidance on photography, accessibility and more. We ask that people use this visual guidance for any new materials.
Download visual brand guidelines
[Last updated: 22/03/2022]
There are a number of branded templates and other resources available on the Communications Centre. However, you will need to log in to access them.
Actions to put the visual identity into practice
- What font should you use?
Please make sure you use Century Gothic on your emails, signatures, auto responders and in any documents that you will not be exporting as a PDF. This is a Microsoft font, which means that an external person won’t need to have the font installed on their computer to view it correctly.
Our other font is Poppins, which offers more design flexibility. It’s what we use on social media, in our designed branded materials, and the website templates. It’s a modern and fresh font, and best of all free to download.
Please download and install it on your computers. We would only recommend using this font when you are exporting it as a PDF document. As there are quite a few fonts within Poppins, these are the three you should use:
- Poppins Light: normal copy
- Poppins Semi-Bold: sub-headers
- Poppins Bold: headers
- Update your documents and marketing materials
We've got lots of branded templates available to personalise and download on the Communications Centre – from PowerPoint templates, briefing templates, through to social media cards. You'll need to log in to be able to view these.
We have Canva background templates to download too.
If you create your own branded materials, please make sure you use our colour palette and check that the colours you use for any text or headings are accessible.
- Attend a training session
We run regular training sessions on our brand, and some practical tips on how to put the guidance and resources into action.
Got a question?
If you need help using the language or visual brand guidelines, please email hub@healthwatch.co.uk