Today, non-animal research charity FRAME (Fund for the Replacement of Animals in Medical Experiments) becomes Replacing Animal Research. The charity’s new name and refreshed brand aim to better communicate its purpose and mission to create a world where no animal suffers for science.
manifesto met with the charity early in its brand evolution, to understand its goals and challenges, and identify where we could add value. We offered some pro bono services to help refresh and evolve the brand’s visual identity in line with the charity’s ambitions.
The manifesto creative team held an internal ideation session to get things started, and one of our designers, Arjun Mahadevan offered his annual volunteering hours to the project. Arjun and the team decided to focus on a few key areas:
- Developing a logo to incorporate the new name
- Improving and simplifying typographic options
- Adjusting the brand’s colour palette to better reflect its values
- Developing a consistent and repeatable illustrative style
The biggest challenge the old brand faced was in communicating what the charity did, which led to a lack of identity and inconsistent brand experience. The new name makes its purpose clear so the accompanying visual identity also needed to align with this.
A dynamic logo for all species
Previous logos had featured a rabbit, an animal commonly associated with animal testing and often featured on badges, marks and logos for other organisations concerned with animal welfare.
However, there are many more species that are the subject of animal testing. Of the 2.68 million experiments which used animals in 2023, 94.4% of all procedures used mice, rats, birds or fish. So we wanted to make those animals more visible within the brand’s visual language.
A fixed logotype is accompanied by variable illustrations of animals – a mouse to represent rodents, a rabbit, a dog, a zebrafish and a chicken. This dynamic logomark allows the Replacing Animal Research logo to accurately reflect the work they do and the animals they protect.
Tone-appropriate visual language
The primary strand of Replacing Animal Research’s work is funding and promoting science that advances non-animal methods in areas where animals are still used today. On top of this, they also take on a role of educator – sharing information with scientists, students, and research professionals about how to find and use non-animal methods, as well as creating change through public campaigns and policy briefings.
To match this, the tone of the new brand is bold and confident with regard to their purpose, hopeful and optimistic to represent their vision, and friendly and sympathetic to align with their role as a supportive partner to the research organisations they work with. We aimed to bring out all of these aspects of the brand through the visual identity. We suggested adapting the former colour palette to reflect the bold vision of the charity, lifting the green by reducing yellows and making a brighter spring green - creating a more positive tone. The palette’s purple was strengthened to a deep violet, giving it a more confident feel. We adjusted the vibrance and brightness of the blue resulting in a fresher indigo. Finally, we swapped out the orange for a cooler citrus colour that complements the rest of the palette.
This was also reflected through our typographic selections – introducing General Sans as the primary display font for headings and the logotype, with its bold, circular form, providing a confident yet friendly feel.
Flexibility in application
The purpose of this project was not to rigidly define the boundaries of a new visual language, but to open up possibilities and provide direction for the brand to move forward.
Replacing Animal Research has a diverse audience base – from scientists and research professionals, to animal advocates and the wider public. The tools provided through the work we’ve done enable the charity to speak to these varied audiences in a flexible way, appropriate to the variety of messages that need to be communicated.
Since we presented this work, Replacing Animal Research has taken forward its application and we’re excited to see it today across the organisation’s website and social media. We’re looking forward to seeing the continued evolution of the brand, as the charity continues its work to see a world where no animal suffers for science.
Design Lead for this project Arjun Mahadevan said: “These are the sorts of projects that designers dream of getting to work on, so I was more than happy to dedicate my volunteer time to it. Catriona, Lucinda and the team at Replacing Animal Research are doing brilliant and important work, and I’m glad that we, at manifesto, have been able to contribute to that in some way. I’m really excited to see what the future holds for this charity!”
Replacing Animal Research Head of Fundraising and Communications, Catriona Sinclair said: “Arjun’s work so perfectly showcases our new charity name, Replacing Animal Research, and our vision of a world where no animal suffers for science. The manifesto team and Arjun were joys to work with and really seem to care deeply about the work they are doing. We cannot wait to showcase our new charity look to the world!”
Learn more about Replacing Animal Research:
Replacing Animal Research website
Replacing Animal Research on LinkedIn
Replacing Animal Research on Instagram
Replacing Animal Research on X