New Brand Identity for Unmind by Ragged Edge

Source: Unmind by Ragged Edge Opinion by Emily Gosling Posted 27 June 2023 In recent years, employers have been rushing to offer an increasingly elaborate range of workplace perks, from the WeWork style beer on tap approach to sleep pods (begging the question, if you have to sleep at work, is this really a perk at all?) to Ben & Jerry’s rather busman’s holiday-ish promise that employees can take home three pints of ice cream a day. But none of these whimsical promises can mask the fact that one of the biggest workplace issues is employee mental health – something that wellbeing platform Unmind is looking to change.

According to London-based branding agency Ragged Edge, which recently undertook a global rebrand for Unmind, the platform sets itself apart from the raft of box-ticking mental health apps out there that put the onus on the employee, rather than the employer, describing it as, ‘Giving employers and employees the tools and training needed to approach wellbeing in a new way’ through an online service that unites ‘everyone under the belief that work should be good for your mental health’. The new look certainly differentiates Unmind from a sea of polite, staid corporate app designs that both dehumanise mental ill-health and aren’t doing a lot to

encourage people to use them over and above a ‘sticking plaster’ solution for companies to feel as though they’re actually doing something. Instead, Unmind’s new look and feel sits squarely outside anything that leans on the tropes we’d associate with all things corporate – and all things healthcare. Instead, it feels lifestyle-led – all trendy type and slick art direction that almost makes you forget it’s anything to do with healthcare, or the workplace, at all. Ragged Edge says it needed to ‘create a brand that stands up for people on an individual level and challenges perceptions on an institutional level.

A brand that can create change you can feel.’ As such, the new identity looks to convey human passion, but still underscore the fact that Unmind is backed up by statistical proof. That passion is conveyed largely through the new colour palette, which is based around a bold yellow that stands for hope. This yellow, which is shown across the wordmark and campaign imagery, is supported by a wide secondary colour palette that looks ‘to represent the full spectrum of human emotion’.

It looks nice for sure, but you’d have to dig pretty deep to come to that same conclusion. For the wordmark, Ragged Edge used a modified version of Commercial Type’s Feature Text as the starting point. As feels befitting for a brand based around mental health, Ragged Edge has duly softened the original font’s sharper serifs to make it all feel more cosy and relatable.

While some have described it (perhaps rather fittingly) as ‘post Chobani’ in its quirky-serif-graphic-design-trendiness, it works: it looks good but without being overtly in your face, and certainly further serves to set Unmind apart from more sombre, or dry, workplace mental health initiatives.

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The rebranding of Unmind represents a significant shift in how workplace mental health is approached, making it highly relevant and impactful for brand strategy professionals, while also introducing a fresh perspective on corporate identity.

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