Posted on July 01, 2010

For any design agency, having a good relationship with your client and a respect for their business is very important, but every now and again we work with a client whose ‘business’ goes far beyond the usual commercial considerations and has a very real impact on peoples lives. For us at Decoder Saint Francis Hospice is one such client.

End-of-life care can be a very difficult subject for most of us, it’s something we’d like to ignore and is therefore a unique challenge when it comes to communicating the work and needs of a hospice. Having met the wonderful people at Saint Francis Hospice we’ve seen first-hand how much light, joy and hope can exist within a hospice, the practical and emotional support they give to patients and their families is a story that deserves to be told.

Based in Essex, Saint Francis Hospice care for the local community by offering a wide range of services which includes facilities and programmes for inpatients and day patients as well as care in the home. Of course this is all provided free of charge so successful fundraising is vital. That’s where Decoder comes in.

For our first project we were asked to devise a campaign to help raise funds for nursing staff, it was to be simply and unambiguously called Sponsor a Nurse. We created an overall ‘styling’ with clear typography, consistent layout, strong use of photography and a clean professional, friendly feel to the marketing materials. This gives them a cohesive branding voice which reflects the wonderful, professional caring nature of the hospice.

The immediate result was a mailer which could be used as a standalone leaflet or an insertion into other publications. Supporting material such as adverts, posters and banners contributed to an increase in regular donors willing to become sponsors.

Since this initial contact Decoder has worked with Saint Francis Hospice on several design projects and continues to build on the success of the Sponsor A Nurse campaign.