What should our programmes share in a brand identity?

A shared vocabulary of shapes, scale and colour can give programmes recognisable identities without making them look like unrelated brands. For ACT, the design system used overlapping shapes, expressive scaling and an expanded colour palette to give each "Action" pillar its own identity within a cohesive system. The charity's identity also balanced distinction with a subtle reference to The Ardonagh Group. The useful principle is to define variation within the shared system, rather than create a separate visual language for every programme. Decide which shapes, scaling treatments and colours can distinguish individual pillars, while keeping enough of that vocabulary in common for the relationship to remain visible.

Distinctive icons and graphic elements should represent meaningful differences between activities while expressing a common purpose. For the Responsible AI Future Foundation, an icon system represented the sectors RAIFF works with, uniting diverse priorities within a visual identity centred on responsible, human-centred intelligence. The brand narrative was built around "AI is what we make it", connecting the organisation's work through an invitation to act. For Tata Technologies, three coloured lines represented aerospace, automotive and industrial machinery, symbolising both diversity and unity within an identity built around engineering a better world. Apply the same principle to programmes: use visual differences to communicate what each programme does, while retaining a shared idea that explains why the activities belong together.