Department of Health – Head to Health

For thousands of people experiencing mental health challenges across Australia, every day, finding the right support services is confusing and time consuming. Compounding their state of distress. Traditional health environments (like a Hospital Emergency Department) compound the issue further. In 2020 the Australian Government commissioned eight pilot mental health centres across Australia to begin shaping a new open door to mental health for all Australians. With the ambition to open a comprehensive network of services across Australia within the next few years, the centres need to become a distinct new presence in the primary health care landscape.

Idea: “Create time and space”. With pilot centres pending, the brand strategy distilled the required vision of how they’d connect with people seeking support. The brand needed to resonate with the short term mindset people with lived experienced described to us. To disperse distress, a single step forward, clarity but not resolution. Emotionally driven. To project an open feeling. Pause. Calm. Guidance. “Create time and space” framed and informed the identity and centre experience. Horizon talks to space, clarity, calm. Connected to place, the outdoors, with a grounded, positive tone. To help anyone feel comfortable and safe to reach out.

In a crowded and often confusing service landscape we saw that the new network of centres didn’t actually need a new name or brand. Instead, we proposed repositioning the ‘Head to Health’ brand name that was already in use for the mental health website, leveraging a mental health support masterbrand that could sit across a spectrum of service models and care.

We helped to define and bring to life a national brand with local connection for the centres. From indigenous communities to mining towns to cities, each centre’s location has a different community, distinct needs and network of related services around it. The sense of place helps people to feel understood. A single overpowering national centre brand would have diminished authenticity. The design system had to create cohesion at national level but also allowed important flexibility for local tailoring to help the brand connect with that community.