Wren - the Women’s Recovery Network

Our brief was to build an identity which signified a transformation in mental health support for women. We chose to go a step further, by also transforming our way of working - embedding a co-design process throughout the project and making a commitment to amplify the voice of lived experience in rooms where it had been absent for far too long.

It was vital for the project’s success that we moved away from traditional hierarchical service structures, towards a process where every voice mattered. We dedicated over 50 hours to consultation with lived experience, and more than 100 women were integral to shaping the final delivery of Wren.

• 3 focus groups with lived experience, carers, charities, support services, patient advisory groups, and hospital stakeholders
• 3 workshops with lived experience and internal stakeholders to facilitate transparency
• 2 service naming sessions with lived experience to ensure naming was welcoming, accessible and easily understood
• 5 market research sessions with lived experience volunteers to review final identity

Throughout the entire process, our creative team acted as both ideators and facilitators, making sure everything we learned from our co-design participants was resolved against the brief, and factored into the identity in a considered way. There were opportunities to teach (e.g about the role of a logo) and to learn (e.g. kinds of imagery that might be triggering). From initial concepts to final deliverables, there was professional stewardship of the design outcomes every step of the way, empowered by the strong sense of trust and respect that we had built with our collaborators.

Our co-design methodology ensured we exceeded the design brief – Wren is uplifting, courageous, collaborative and curious, and successfully delivers an accessible, inclusive service that women feel safe to engage with at a time of great vulnerability.

A name that changes perceptions:
The service was initially known as the Specialist Women’s Mental Health Service, which evoked impersonal clinical interactions of the past. Through in-depth consultation, we created a new name and tagline: Wren (the Women’s Recovery Network), a unique service where women’s mental health matters.

“I do love the name, it’s a little bird, its flight and freedom, of a journey, of going somewhere”
– Lived experience consultant

A trusted mark:
With gentle curves and blended colour, Wren’s logo conveys an uplifting tone. The folded wings connect to a small bird with big energy, and a ‘w’ created at the base of the mark is an additional mnemonic – rounding out a logo that is functional, beautiful and trustworthy.

Speaking to women as people:
The language used needed to respect a woman’s lived experience and represent the personality of Wren – not an institution but a person who truly understands. We created a framework to communicate this vision clearly and consistently, including principles and examples to follow. Messaging is set in the typeface Noto – specifically designed for increased legibility and ease of translation.

“If the service was a person, I would want them to speak to me with an open heart”
– Lived experience consultant

Empowering imagery:
Discussion with women revealed an important insight: certain imagery can remind them of previous impersonal experiences with support services and being ostracised from society. To reflect that Wren is women-first, we use photographs of women making eye contact and speaking directly, not shying away in their time of need. A secondary palette of illustrations shares ownership of Wren, by including different voices and points of view. Colours are not overtly gendered, with a range of tones specified for visual contrast and emotional flexibility.

“You are making women feel important”
– Lived experience consultant

”We are so stuck on diagnosis we forget the individual, we forget to hear the totality of their experience”
– Psychiatrist, Victoria

”Many poor experiences mean whenever it comes to a new service, I’m extremely dubious and hesitant”
– Lived experience consultant

For many women experiencing mental ill health, motivation to seek support is outweighed by a fear of enduring greater trauma inside the mental health system. In designing for Wren, our first challenge was to overcome this perception, and our second was to create a service that felt completely different from what already existed.

Our innovative approach addressed these two challenges with a single, simple solution – putting women at the centre of the creative process. The opportunity to consider the complexity of women’s experiences - including trauma, sexual abuse, eating disorders and perinatal mental health concerns – helped to shape a truly user-centric set of design parameters.

To respond to each user’s unique circumstances, thoughtfully considered brand guidelines, including tone of voice and lexicon, allow Wren to speak consistently to as many women as possible – through a hub and spoke model of care across hospital, at-home and online, the service identity remains strong and flexible enough to meet a diversity of needs.

That Wren belongs to institutions, but does not speak, engage or behave like an institution is its most interesting design feature. That our clients were comfortable to endorse a brand that behaves like a smaller, more personal entity is testament to their belief in the co-design process, their trust in the creative team, and their respect for the women they hope to support with this new offering.

By consulting the user first and designing a new creative process as well as an identity to address their needs, we have helped women to feel that their mental health matters, at last.

Wren is so much more than a brand, it’s a service to support lives.
”I had such a valuable and therapeutic interaction [with Wren]. It was therapeutic in a way that I’d never experienced before... it was a comfort that I never expected from a mental health facility.” – Lived experience consultant

Changing perceptions of women’s mental ill health:
Through the application of a professional design process, Wren achieved a positive social impact - challenging outdated models of care and traditional service branding and representing a new way to talk about women’s mental health. A unique combination of skills – insight into the mental health space, branding, empathetic co-design – allowed us to successfully overcome the existing barriers to access and perceptions of mental illness (stigma, fear).

Women feel that their mental health matters, at last:
The overall outcome was a service which connects with women at a time of vulnerability. It is estimated that Wren will support 750 women in need per year, with 102 women supported already.

A brand that encourages women to engage in their darkest moments:
Since the launch of Wren, interest in the service has increased by 500% online, versus previous standalone service. This demonstrates that co-creating with lived experience delivered a service that women feel safe to approach. This design approach was also significant for our clients – providing a sense of shared ownership and empowering participants to champion the approach elsewhere.

Victoria is proud to call itself home to Wren - the first care model of its kind in Australia. The service and its overwhelmingly positive reception have helped to cement the state’s reputation as an innovative leader in the healthcare space. Wren has already been pledged additional funding for expansion.

“Where mental health matters… it says everything you need to say doesn’t it.”
– Lived experience consultant