18 keys

A story of women finding refuge

Brief

Create a visual identity and website for 18 Keys, a digital-first fundraising campaign for a new women-only refuge in London, overseen by our longstanding clients, St Martin-in-the-fields.

Challenge

Appeal to professional women in their 40s living in southeast England with an interest in women’s issues and homelessness – a new demographic for St Martin’s. We also had to strike the right tone, look and feel to represent the seriousness and urgency of the issue and the peaceful safe haven of the refuge.

Solution

We created a hopeful visual identity to reflect the positive impact the 18 Keys project will have on women’s lives. Recognising the obvious sensitivities around using women’s images, we commissioned Lauk Haus, based in San Francisco, to create a bespoke illustration of the refuge.

The illustration worked as a whole, but it could also be divided into vignettes depicting activities including one-to-one therapy, cooking, gardening, yoga and art therapy. The style was warm, flowing and restful, representing women’s mutual camaraderie, support and recovery.

Copy for the website reflected this tone, explaining, informing and persuading supporters to give with regular asks. And we worked with communications consultant Emma Callagher to ensure that the user journeys were smooth and engaging.