Rebuilding the Nation's Refugee Charity

The Refugee Council has been supporting refugees in Britain since the Second World War. You'd think they would feel like part of the furniture. And yet, until recently, most people didn’t even realise they were a charity.

I worked with the Refugee Council, my team at Shape History – and, crucially, refugees themselves – to help shape a brand that could hold a set of important tensions. It needed to feel instantly charitable and approachable, while still being credible and authoritative. It needed to feel British enough to persuade supporters, while genuinely representing refugee experiences. And it needed to make space for both the hard truths and the hope that sits alongside them.

Verbal identity, visual identity, illustration

The tensions uncovered by our strategy team led me to the brand platform Grit and Grace. The Refugee Council argues calmly, credibly and with restraint – but they are relentless in their fight for refugee rights. Refugee experience, too, is complex and contradictory: fear and hope, darkness and light, loss and rebuilding. Even Brits are known for keeping calm and carrying on. Rather than smoothing those contradictions away, the brand was built to hold them.

The tensions uncovered by our strategy team led me to a brand platform we called Grit and Grace. Calm and credible, yet unwaveringly resilient, it reflects both the Refugee Council’s approach and the complex reality of refugee experience – holding fear and hope, darkness and light – without smoothing those contradictions away.

LETTING THE LIGHT IN

To visualise the platform, I came up with a concept inspired by lino printing.

lino printing with refugees

and illustrations
by me!

The process – cutting away darkness to reveal light – became a metaphor for rebuilding, resilience, and making space for hope. I created a series of lino prints by hand, alongside lino workshops with refugees, as well as some digital lino-style illustrations that became our core brand elements.

lino printing with refugees

and illustrations
by me!

My proudest moment was the making of a signature font

Britishness and refugee experience were woven together throughout. British heritage showed up through references to post-war values, community and integration, and visually through colour, pattern and print traditions. Refugee perspectives shaped the same elements from another angle – from the emotional meanings behind colour choices, to illustrations and symbols that reflected how Britain feels when you’re finding your place within it.