Founded by four veterans, Head Up is a UK mental health charity for the armed forces community. It aims to help serving and former members of Forces personnel build up their mental resilience, and develop a positive mindset.
Founded by four veterans, Head Up is a UK mental health charity for the armed forces community. It aims to help serving and former members of Forces personnel build up their mental resilience, and develop a positive mindset.
The team behind the charity has over 50 years of service between them, including multiple combat operational tours. They’ve seen firsthand how Forces personnel can suffer from life-threatening mental health challenges – including PTSD, depression and anxiety – as a result of trauma and high-pressure conditions. Sadly, they’ve also witnessed how hard it can be to get the right support.
Head Up was created to empower members of the military community to recover their mental health, and embrace a positive and happy future.
We started working with Head Up in 2021. They had a brand identity (and a good one, at that) but no guidance on how to implement it across their marketing.
In particular, Head Up needed help with a major fundraising campaign to raise £3 million between June 2021 and June 2023. The problem? They didn’t know what marketing items they needed, or how to produce them to support the campaign.
Visualise was on the case. We knew that with the right branding, marketing and rollout, we could provide Head Up with the tools they needed to raise the funds and public awareness they needed to succeed.
Head Up needed the right marketing materials to draw attention to the campaign and garner support.
First things first: we needed to get donations rolling in – and fast. We began with an investment package, including a presentation and brochure about the Head Up Retreat. Targeted at larger investors, these detailed the challenges faced by military servicemen and women, the issues they encounter getting the help they need, and how Head Up can help.
We knew it was vital to go to market and start raising investments as quickly as possible. To facilitate this, this initial design process also formed the development stages of the overall brand identity.
With the campaign underway, we set about creating Head Up’s brand guidelines to ensure consistency and familiarity across their marketing. Using the brochure as a stepping stone, we were able to separate the creative assets and produce a style guide for the charity – all while the investment project was working its magic. (Who said designers can’t do two things at once?)
Next up was supporting one of the founders with his 5,000-mile UK coast run. This was part of the fundraising campaign, for which we created marketing posters and postcards to raise awareness.
Most recently in 2023, we designed an informative handbook promoting 16 mindful treatments at the Head Up Retreat, from journaling and gratitude to nutrition and meditation. We also designed event graphics and stands for the team to use as they continue their journey.
As well as refining the charity’s visual representation, our work supplied Head Up with usable creative assets to implement across all their marketing channels. With these branding tools – and our experts – at hand, Head Up were able to create successful investment opportunities, and raise a huge amount of money for their campaign.
While Head Up deserves all the credit in the world for a brilliant campaign, it’s nice to know that our design support played a role in raising the funds for this very worthwhile cause. And that makes us very proud.
Our vision was clear but a bit sketchy in places. You helped us put our vision and mission into a stunning brochure as well as creating our branding design. The support, understanding, in-depth detail and flexibility has been superb.
Do you need some help making your marketing and branding work for your business?
If you want to connect with your audience, drive your message, and start seeing results, then we’d love to help. Whatever branding challenges you might be facing, get in touch, and let’s face them together.