Humanitarian Policy Group (HPG) at ODI: Brand and publishing strategy refresh

Challenge
As part of a wider organisational rebrand at ODI, the thinktank’s Humanitarian Policy Group (HPG) needed a new visual identity that felt fresh and aligned with ODI’s new look, without losing the distinct identity that made HPG recognisable as a policy voice in its own right. At the same time, publishing processes needed to raise the bar on accessibility and reach, at a moment when translated and assistive-technology-optimised outputs were becoming essential.

Approach
Given sole responsibility for the HPG brand and publishing processes, I ran the refresh as a single, connected project rather than a series of separate tasks, treating visual identity, publishing standards and accessibility as one brief, built to work together across every future HPG output rather than as a one-off design exercise.

What I did

• Conceptualised and designed a new visual identity for HPG – typefaces, colour palettes and a full package of brand assets – aligned with ODI’s broader refresh while preserving HPG’s distinct positioning.
• Built out templates and assets across both the Adobe Creative Suite and Microsoft Office, so the identity was usable across every format the team worked in.
• Authored a full brand guidelines book to support consistent application going forward.
• Supported the concurrent ODI-wide brand refresh process.
• Embedded accessibility into the refresh itself: optimised publications for assistive technologies and brought them up to best practice for PDF accessibility.
• Managed HPG’s partnership with Translators Without Borders, increasing translated output eightfold over 18 months.