Pushing for better. Right here. Right now.
In recent years, living with Parkinson’s in the UK has become more difficult. More than ever, people want rapid improvements to services, and direct access
to support, information and treatments that can help them live better with Parkinson’s, right now.
We partnered with Parkinson's UK to build a brand that reflects and meets the needs of their community. The new organisational strategy aims to make it possible for every person living with Parkinson’s to live better today. To achieve it, they needed to revitalise and reposition the brand. To be more visible, more relevant and more accessible to more people in more places.
Engagement
- Project-wide involvement of over 1,000 members of the Parkinson’s community
- Engaged and managed input from stakeholders throughout project
Discovery
– Workshops, interviews and analysis
– Local support group visits and engagement
– Parkinson’s UK Annual General Meeting visit and engagement
Strategy
– Positioning, purpose, proposition and personality
Creative
– Visual identity system
– Logo creation
– Iconography and illustration
– Motion
– Bespoke typeface design and development
– Collaboration with Google to make font available through Google Fonts
Testing
– Quantitative and qualitative testing
Delivery
– Brand guidelines
– Brand launch film
– Consulting and support on planning for brand launch and rollout
BrandNew The Year in Review 2025
No 1: Best in The Best in Monograms
Transform Awards 2026
Bronze: Best Visual Identity by a Charity, NGO or Not-For-Profit
iF Design Awards 2026
Winner: Branding & Communication Design
Creativepool Annual 2025
Shortlisted: Brand category
Indigo Awards 2026
Gold: Branding and Branding for NGO & Non-Profit
Better Future World Design Awards 2026
Gold: Identity and Branding – Health
Silver: Identity & Branding – Community
Better Future Gov Design Awards 2026
Gold: Identity and Branding
International Design (IDA) Awards 2025
Honourable Mention: Brand identity
Creative Communication (C2A) Awards 2025
Winner: Brand identity / Branding
Design Masterprize 2025
Best of the Best: Branding and Corporate Identity
Best Brand Awards 2025
Gold: Logo and Identity categories
Better Future LONDON Design Awards 2025
Silver: Graphic Design - Identity and Branding category
European Design Awards 2025
Bronze: Branding: Company logo
Communicator Awards 2026
Award of Excellence: Brand Redesign or Refresh
Strategic approach – connecting with our audience
We dug deep to understand the condition, the organisation and the incredibly diverse experiences of people living with Parkinson’s. We ran workshops and interviews, subscribed to podcasts, visited events and local branches to get to know what peoples’ experience of living with Parkinson’s was really like.
And what did we hear? That people want things to be better now. That they can’t wait for changes some time down the line. That small victories today matter as much as the promise of future breakthroughs.
The concept of making tangible improvements today drove the new proposition – that Parkinson’s UK is the charity ‘Pushing for better. Right here. Right now’. From local branch support to research and healthcare, everyone is united by a desire to make the biggest positive difference to lives today.
Supported by a new brand personality of ‘relentless doers’ and underpinned by a refreshed brand purpose, the brand position gives Parkinson’s UK the tools it needs to reach more people, more effectively.
The search for a symbol
How do you create a symbol of belonging for a condition with over 40 different symptoms? For people living with Parkinson's and their friends and families, for local branches and healthcare professionals, for fundraisers and researchers?
As Parkinson's UK had grown, its brand architecture had become fragmented. And without a strong, unifying visual shorthand, it was getting harder for people to see where they were showing up and making an impact.
But defining what Parkinson’s looks like, or even feels like isn’t easy. Following an intense creative phase, lots (and lots) of marque exploration and consultation with people from the Parkinson’s community, we arrived at a marque capable of reflecting an organisation and acting as a symbol of belonging for a condition that cannot be easily summed up.
Inspired by the charity's past, but built squarely for the here and now, the new marque incorporates the Parkinson’s tulip – an international symbol for Parkinson’s – recognised by the Parkinson’s community across the UK and around the world.
A brand for everyone
When ‘being there for every Parkinson’s journey’ is an organisational priority, accessibility is a non-negotiable. So accessible design drove the creative process – from type and colour that met technical standards, to how the brand was created and shared.
The brand is used by volunteers at local branches across the country, so we needed to make sure we created a visual identity that not only packed the right personality punch, but could also be accessed and used by everyone, everywhere.
Parkinsans – a proprietary font available to all
Step forward Parkinsans – the new brand typeface designed and developed in-house by Red Stone, for Parkinson’s UK. Crafted to be visible, approachable, flexible and accessible, Parkinsans defines the brand voice. But to make the brand accessible to anyone creating brand materials, the typeface needed to be readily available everywhere. We opted to create an open source typeface to embrace this idea of access to all. Now available on Google Fonts, Parkinsans is truly available to everyone.
We knew from discovery that we couldn't always rely on volunteers and members being able to use all brand assets when creating materials. But by baking as much distinct brand character into the typeface as possible, we could ensure a distinct and recognisable brand presence through the use of type alone.
Taking stylistic references from the marque and the realities of living with Parkinsons, Parkinsans is human, energetic, imperfect and sprinkled with unexpected quirks.
The flex in weights gives Parkinson’s UK the ability to dial up and down their tone seamlessly – from attention grabbing headlines, to research reports.
Expressing our personality. More emotive. More gutsy.
We built out a flexible, accessible and easy to implement graphic system that could flex for every eventuality. Designed with the people actually using the brand in mind, the system gives everyone the confidence and tools they need to pick up the brand and use it.
Stemming from the logo, the graphic language is reflective of the drive of the brand personality and the journey of living with Parkinson’s. The ups and downs. The good days, the bad days, the everyday days.
Supporting the graphic language and typography, a refreshed colour palette and new approach to illustration helps Parkinson’s UK tell a wider range of stories and deal with difficult subjects in a more engaging and relatable way.
Easy to implement and flex, packed full of personality, the graphic system embodies a step change for Parkinson’s UK. A brand that’s more visible, more accessible and more relevant. A brand that’s built for everyone to be able to access and use. A brand built to help the organisation meet the needs of every Parkinson’s journey. Right here. Right now.
“It’s great to see that the right amount of energy has been invested in the right parts of the identity to maximise”
