Hannah Gallop
When CleanMed Europe, Europe’s leading sustainable healthcare conference, sought to strengthen its brand and enhance the overall conference experience, it needed a fresh approach to engage its audience.
Organised by Health Care Without Harm (HCWH) Europe, an international group focused on reducing the environmental impact of the healthcare sector, the conference is a long-standing platform for healthcare leaders and sustainability advocates that enables professionals to share ideas and solutions for greener practices.
However, after transitioning to a fully virtual format following the COVID-19 pandemic, the conference faced new challenges in conveying its mission, increasing engagement, and boosting attendance.
That’s where Barques came in.
Following our initial conversation, we organised a discovery workshop at CleanMed Europe’s office in Brussels. As Sam Bishop, Head of Community Engagement at HCWH Europe, said: “The discovery day was excellent because we realised we knew a lot about the conference and our audience, but we didn’t yet have the tools or the language to really translate that into a brand and identity.”
For organisations like CleanMed Europe, starting with a discovery workshop is a powerful way to uncover and refine key aspects of their brand. This collaborative environment encourages meaningful discussions, ensuring that all stakeholders are involved in the process and therefore shaping the outcome.
During the workshop, we focused on defining CleanMed Europe’s mission, vision, and values. These important pieces of information form the foundation of CleanMed Europe’s identity and drive its engagement with both internal teams and external audiences. As Sam reflected, “It was a day where we brainstormed ideas, discussed our challenges, and really honed in on what CleanMed Europe’s identity needed to become.”
The insights gathered during the workshop were compiled into a detailed insights and findings report, which serves as a crucial tool for developing a comprehensive brand strategy.
ith insights from our discovery workshop, we moved into brand development, transforming key findings into visual concepts. We began by creating stylescapes, visual boards blending abstract ideas with design elements like colours, typography, imagery, and symbols. These stylescapes provided CleanMed Europe with a toolkit to explore different creative directions and identify what aligned with their goals.
Through close collaboration, we refined these ideas to create a final look and feel that perfectly captured CleanMed’s vision.
The new identity introduced a vibrant, dynamic colour palette suited for digital platforms, while refined shades echoed HCWH Europe’s branding, balancing innovation and professionalism.
The logo, inspired by the medical cross, symbolises the connection and collaboration among healthcare professionals, with a radiating design representing CleanMed Europe’s mission to spread sustainable practices. Bespoke icons and infographics were also developed to ensure visual consistency across all conference materials.
To further support their branding, we produced video content for the 2024 CleanMed Europe conference, including a branded video and shorter versions for speaker displays, ensuring a cohesive and engaging visual narrative across the event.
We developed an extensive brand guideline package to guarantee seamless integration of CleanMed Europe’s new identity across all touchpoints. This included a detailed corporate guidebook along with regional variations tailored specifically for organising conferences globally. “Since launching the brand, we’ve had excellent feedback,” Sam shared. “It gave the conference a fresh look, a brighter, more positive attitude, which we think our attendees really resonated with.”
The brand guidelines incorporated a well-defined tone of voice to ensure the CleanMed Europe team can apply this to all communication to ensure it is consistently clear, engaging, and aligned with their core values.
At Barques, we specialise in creating impactful brand identities that resonate with your audience. Whether you’re in the healthcare sector or beyond, our expert team will work with you to craft a vibrant visual identity that stands out.