‘From 1,000 to 1’: Inside the development of the NHS’s first brand identity 25 years on
The NHS as we know it today only joined up under one brand identity in April 1999. Two of the project leads recall the challenges faced – and the benefits of simplicity that every brand can learn from.
It’s a logo that, for many, most closely defines the United Kingdom: the NHS logo. That iconic blue (Pantone-300) and those bold italic letters (in Frutiger font) feel like they have been around since the very inception of the NHS in 1948.
But, of course, they haven’t. It wasn’t until 1999 that a single common brand identity was created for the NHS. While the ‘blue lozenge’ has been around since the early-1990s on prescriptions and as part of the branding for the NHS Executive Committee, it wasn’t until New Labour swept to power in 1997 that the then-Secretary of State for Health, Frank Dobson, wanted to bring every NHS trust under one single brand identity.
