Battersea Dogs & Cats Home is a much-loved animal welfare charity with a longstanding pedigree, caring for as many as 7,000 animals a year across its three sites in the UK. But like so many organisations, over the years its branding had not kept pace with changes to what it does and how it does it.

Pentagram Partners Marina Willer and Naresh Ramchandani worked closely with the animal charity to develop a new brand strategy, tone of voice and visual identity that better reflects its work today.

Simplifying the majority of its communications by dropping the words ‘Dogs & Cats Home’ was the first step, along with introducing a new brand line: ‘Here for every dog and cat.’

It is Japanese illustrator Hiromi Suzuki’s charming watercolour illustrations of ten different cats and dogs – which appear in the charity’s signature blue – that arguably make the most impact, though. The cute characters offer a fresh approach to animal welfare campaigning, and avoid the shock tactics and overly sentimental language traps that the charity sector so often falls into

Credits:
Design Studio: Pentagram. Partners: Marina Willer, Naresh Ramchandani.