Leicestershire Fire and Rescue Service

Rescuing a brand

Leicestershire Fire and Rescue Service got in touch with Arch Creative to review and refresh their marketing output and help bring their brand up to date.

Our work with the team is an important lesson about how branding works. A brand is not just a logo. It’s a combination of the elements around the logo – the tone of voice, the colour palette, the graphics – that creates a cohesive, effective brand.

Positioning the brand

Our first course of action was a review of the brand. We carried out an audit on the current website, the use of social media and the look and feel of brand assets. LFRS’s brand was confused – there were good pieces of information, content and ideas, but all of these things were in cohesive.

This analysis gave us a springboard into where we wanted to be – LFRS didn’t need a full rebrand, they needed a redesign of key features and an evaluation of the brand’s position.

A booklet for Leicestershire Fire and Rescue Service showing there upcoming plan and the new branding.

Safer People, Safer Places

The cornerstone of LFRS’s refresh is their purpose ‘Safer People, Safer Places’. This strapline has informed our work on the new imagery and graphics and has helped to unify the brand. With a clear brand identity, the message ‘Safer People, Safer Places’ has a better chance of engagement both within the fire service and with the public.

‘Safer People, Safer Places’ represents a new part of the LFRS brand with its own logo, and its own campaigns and advertising.

Safer People Safer Places logo design for the Leicestershire Fire and Rescue Service

The Brand Identity

The identity we created for ‘Safer People, Safer Places is based around three combined visual elements – Targets, People and Alarm symbols. These three images are neatly broken down further into subsets of meaning, which you can see below. All of this work is encapsulated in the icon, which sits alongside the Leicestershire Fire and Rescue Service logo.

The fire service as an institution has strong, bold colours already associated with it. We felt it would be counterintuitive to attempt to recolour the organisation – you don’t get green fire engines, after all. Our palette refocused the yellows, reds, blacks and greys already associated with the fire service, giving a striking image.

“We’re incredibly pleased with the amazing work Arch Creative has completed for Leicestershire Fire and Rescue Service and the Safer People, Safer Places refresh. They’ve revitalised our brand.”

Communications and Design Coordinator
Leicester Fire and Rescue Service

Graphic assets

Our work for LFRS has included new Fire Engine and van livery, exhibition graphics, a website refresh and a comprehensive toolkit of graphic icons. The icons were created, along with a range of illustrations, to be used by third parties to clearly portray stats and information. One of the key issues we found in our initial review of the LFRS brand was a lack of clarity. Our graphical assets are one way of answering this problem.

What’s next?

Our relationship with Leicestershire Fire and Rescue Service is just beginning. We’ve successfully delivered on the initial proposition and refreshed the organisation’s output, whilst enhancing the existing logo and reputation. The next steps will mean creating more collateral, marketing and advertising that will further the ‘Safer People, Safer Places’ brand.

If you’re looking to rescue your brand, give us a call.

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