Blue Cross: Case Study (2012)

From time to time, projects run exactly as you plan them.  We receive a good brief from the client, scoping as accurate, the project team knows what the project goals are from the beginning, the goal posts don’t move and the deadline is met.  This was the case on a project we recently worked on for Blue Cross.

Blue Cross is a well-established charity that provides support for pets through rehoming and subsidised veterinary hospitals throughout the UK.  They are currently going through an entire rebranding programme.  From printed material to shop fronts, vans to the website, everything is changing.

The first version of the Blue Cross website that Headscape built was back in 2009/10.  Our task, for the re-brand project was to apply the new brand to the site using just CSS and jQuery, based on guidelines provided by one of London’s leading creative agencies, The Good Agency.   Functionality and layout of the site were to remain unchanged but brand and imagery were to be updated.

There were three critical elements that made this project a success:

1. Planning and communication – Meeting with Blue Cross and The Good Agency was critical to delegate responsibilities, agree sign off processes and negotiate realistic timescales.  After a detailed briefing on what was permitted in terms of design, we were entrusted to create the new style whilst The Good Agency kept an eye on the brand from a high level.
2. Signoff of the design – One of Blue Cross’ critical roles was to get the design look and feel rubber stamped by its Board, knowing that any delay would affect the delivery date.  This was achieved with none of the contingency used.
3. Content – Whilst there was no significant textual content to update, the re-brand required all images on the site to be reviewed.  Images needed to focus on animals once they have been rehomed (happy animals) rather than on animals in need of re-homing (animals potentially in distress).  Blue Cross undertook this task and delivered to schedule.

The result?  A site that contains all the good content that has been integrated since the site went live 18 months ago and reflects Blue Cross’ compelling new brand.