This week Switchboard is unveiling our new branding, and launching our new look.
As a small LGBTQ charity that has been operating in the City for 43 years, we feel that this new branding will help us communicate better what we do. This is in direct response to feedback which we got from LGBTQ communities in the autumn through our ‘Your Switchboard Needs You’ consultation. From this feedback we discovered that whilst many people had heard of us and had a good impression of us, they didn’t have a sense of what we do, and thought that we were just a helpline.
Our new branding aims to help us communicate that Switchboard is a charity for LGBTQ people looking for a sense of community, support or information, and our new tagline ‘connecting you to LGBTQ support’ was chosen to reflect this. Our logo was designed to reflect how we connect LGBTQ people together, such as our Older LGBT Project, Disability Project and Rainbow Café, and how we support them through our services, or link them to other organisations.
We thought long and hard about changing the name, but it was clear from what the community told us that people recognise and trust the Switchboard name. We have been around for over 40 years and don’t want to lose the history and heritage of the name. We have however added the ‘Q’ as a large number of those responding to ‘Your Switchboard Needs You’ wanted us too. Queer is an identity used by a growing number of people in the LGBTQ communities in the City, and we wanted this to be reflected in our tagline.
We had the pleasure of working with a dedicated and hardworking volunteer who collaborated with us on the rebrand. They gave their valuable time to us for free and we are very grateful to them and the many other volunteers who are integral to what we do.
We are confident that this new look will help us tell our story in a clearer way and highlight that Switchboard is more than just a helpline.
