Branding & Identity
Vernacare: A global rebrand
My Role
I functioned as the designer across the whole project at A Story Called, working under collaborative creative direction: wordmark refresh, brand guidelines, packaging refresh, product catalogue and sales materials.
The Challenge
Vernacare is a UK-based medical supplies manufacturer with a global footprint, known for quality manufacturing and environmentally-led product innovation. Its identity, first developed in 1961, no longer reflected either: a dated, intricate serif wordmark with poor legibility on screen, and no coherent system governing the hundreds of sub-brands sitting under the Vernacare umbrella.
The brief wasn't a logo refresh. It was an identity system flexible enough to work across hundreds of product ranges, and clear enough to be executed consistently by internal departments and external suppliers across 50 markets.
The strategy
Evolution, not revolution. Vernacare's equity sat in its recognition within clinical procurement, so the refresh retained the established red and blue and the wave device while rebuilding everything around modern legibility. The existing mark suffered at small scale and in digital-first applications due to its high-contrast letterforms and intricate serif detailing. A brand with Vernacare’s commitment to future-ready technology needed a mark that was equally future-proofed.
The solution was a bold contemporary wordmark that performs at small sizes, on screen, and on curved packaging in clinical environments.
The identity system
The guidelines were treated as the real product of the project. Covering typography, logo usage, colour, photography, layout, iconography and tone of voice, they were written to be interpreted by non-designers: internal marketing teams and external print and packaging suppliers worldwide.
Brand Colour Palette
Three core colours anchor the identity, these as punchier evolutions on the historic palette; five sector colours to extend it, one each for Toileting, Personal Hygiene, Environmental Cleaning & Disinfection, Skin Integrity and Surgical Solutions. Each carries a full tint ramp, so a single sector can flex across packaging, print and digital while staying unmistakably Vernacare. Every value is fixed in Pantone, CMYK, RGB and web for flexibility across all executions.
Photographic Treatment
The imagery carried the same logic as the identity: form following function. Shot high in contrast and pushed close to blown-out, with a cool blue tint, the treatment borrowed the visual language of the environments the products actually live in. Hospital lighting is bright, clinical and cold, and the photography leaned into it deliberately: the near-sterile brightness reads as cleanliness and low infection risk before a caption explains anything. A treatment developed under the creative director's direction and applied consistently across the range.
Icons
A bespoke icon set I designed and built to a single system: one stroke weight, one corner language, one blue. It spans the functional (dosages, volumes, pack quantities, dilution rates) and the brand-level (sustainability, care, support, delivery), so product information and brand values speak in the same visual voice. Produced for the people using it: procurement managers scanning a catalogue, suppliers laying out a pack, teams who need to reference and compare at a glance with consistency and confidence.
Product catalogue
Redesigned around the person actually using it: the procurement manager. A consistent grid and a purpose-built icon suite allow rapid product referencing and comparison across hundreds of SKUs.OOH advertising, sales toolkits and trade materials, all built from the same system, executable without central design support.
Packaging and subsidiary branding
With hundreds of sub-brands under the umbrella, the system had to flex across every product range while remaining unmistakably Vernacare.
Campaign and sales
OOH advertising, sales toolkits and trade materials, all built from the same system, executable without central design support.
The Impact
Launched and rolled out across the 50 countries in which Vernacare operates, executed by internal teams and external suppliers working directly from the guidelines.
The identity remains in use today, almost 10 years on.