RSM Visual Identity Refresh
2024 - 2025
Since spring 2024, I have led on a comprehensive in-house visual identity refresh at the Royal Society of Medicine (RSM). This is the first time in over 20 years that there has been a holistic review of all design materials, including: logo, colours, fonts, imagery, use of animation and all other visual elements - all brought together to produce a new visual identity that is built for the modern digital-first age.
A key aim of the project is to help the organisation attract a younger and more diverse audience, helping to support new members earlier in their careers, and increasing our worldwide reach – all objectives of the RSM’s 2021-2025 strategy.
Project Kickoff
As project manager, I put together and managed a cross-functional team to develop the project brief and charter, and to define requirements. To start with we identified the following issues with the current identity that we needed to address:
Inconsistent logo styles, none of which are optimised for digital platforms, animation or small-scale use (particularly the typeface and crest)
Inconsistency across use of the current identity across internal and external teams.
A colour palette that is too restrictive and inaccessible, particularly to colour blind people - that also inappropriate symbolism
Lack of design flexibility
Incoherent imagery and with many conflicting styles
Initial design ideas
As a team we collated case studies of similar branding refresh projects carried out by relevant organisations to support our ideas. We also ran consultations with senior management and representatives from all departments to seek their input. This was all fed into the initial design ideas created by the design team. Examples of these can be seen below, and these were refined further for the final design.
New Logo
Chosen to be stronger, confident, and more distinctive than their current logotype.
The typeface - Brother 1816 - is sans serif which is a big change, it is a modern font designed in 2016 to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the first sans serif font (which is around the age of the RSM). It is modern but classic, and thus feels timeless. It looks dependable and emphasises our stability.
Variants include 1 line, side by side and stacked, for maximum flexibility online.
New Colour Palette
The colour red has been the RSMs primary colour for the last decade so for brand equity we knew this would have to stay, but we looked back at the original crest from 1922 to find a much more fresh and vibrant red which we built this new colour palette around, with a range of complementary reds and yellows.
We considered reintroducing the green but it held several inappropriate conotations.
Imagery
Iconography - a family icons to illustrate the theme of coming together to create something new.
Photography - we refined the guidelines around in-house photography and the stock imagery the RSM use.
Event photography now focuses on our members and delegates, showcasing the breadth of the RSM’s audience. Images highlight their engagement, involvement, and connections with colleagues—reinforcing the RSM’s role as a convener of discussion, collaboration, and ideas. In parallel, the use of stock imagery highlights the medical and scientific aspects of the Society, with clear guidelines in place to ensure all photography remains realistic, relevant, and reflective of UK and NHS settings.
Implementation
Here are some draft materials to offer a preview of how the new identity will appear across various applications when launched in 2026.
Member and staff engagement
To ensure buy-in from both members and staff, a comprehensive engagement plan was developed. We designed a series of targeted questions addressing all aspects of the new identity, allowing us to gather key metrics that informed and supported our design decisions to the RSM Council.
For staff I held a series of online and in-person workshops, along side a visual takeover of one of the meeting rooms where I could informally take colleagues through our thought processes for the project.
For members, I held range of online workshops and 121sessions, as well as approaching delegates who arrived on-site as our venue. In total I spoke to over 150 members. Some were quick chats, but many were in-depth discussions that provided valuable insights into members’ motivations for joining, their expectations from membership, and their professional lives. These conversations were essential in ensuring that member needs and voices directly influenced the development of the new identity, helping us create work that was both relevant and meaningful to them.
After several intense sessions with the RSM council, the first stage of the new identity has now been signed off by the RSM council.
Identity roll out
The new identity is now ready to roll out, the visual identity guidelines have been developed, with new document templates to aid all staff. Training sessions on the new identity have been conducted with all teams to inform staff of how the changes would impact their work, as well as helping us all to identify the design requirements for each area of the business.
In addition, I collaborated with HR to develop a new SharePoint intranet site. Alongside serving broader internal communications goals, this platform acts as a central repository for all materials related to the new identity, ensuring easy use for all staff.
However due to delays with some major IT projects (CRM and website) the full roll out of the new identity is due in Summer 2026.