The initial brand was perceived overwhelmingly positively. Final feedback delivered by senior stakeholders at the Department for Education, requested a swapping out of the rocket brandmark for minimalistic 'building block elements'. This was owing to earlier audience research the department had undertaken that presented an 'audience preference' towards the conceptual idea of building blocks for this policy.
The OUTCOME
After an initial design sprint the logo concept was finalised with a few variational options as the name for the policy wasn't yet confirmed
The Solution
The strongest concept to emerge from the design sprint used a playful rocket-ship illustration to carry the idea of "boosting" a child's opportunity and development, paired with a subtler reference for the policy audience — the negative space within the "A" of START nodding to the UK's U-to-A* grading system, tying the identity to education and aspiration without alienating the families it was actually speaking to.
Further testing led by the Department of Health surfaced a strong response to building-block imagery as a way of communicating the programme's purpose, so the direction was refined to bring that in.
The Brief
Best Start in Life is the government's strategy to ensure 75% of five-year-olds in England reach a good level of development by 2028 — a multi-year, cross-departmental programme spanning a bespoke website and a national network of service partners.
The identity needed to work across all of it: credible enough for policy audiences, warm enough for parents, resilient enough to still hold up years into a multi-year rollout. I was tasked with developing a set of visual directions for presentation to the Secretary of State for Education.
Client
DFE
Role
Project Lead
Tenure
2024 – 2026
Discipline
Brand / Identity System
Fig.00 — Best Start In Life
BSIL
A government identity built to flex across policy, partners, and parents — as credible in Whitehall as it is warm in a nursery.