The task was to refresh Lifeline Australia, the country’s main and largest suicide prevention hotline, and it quickly became one of the most important projects of my career. The refresh included creating new brand guidelines, explaining everything in extensive detail while remaining easy to understand and follow. They were designed for a multitude of people across different parts of the organisation, whether familiar or unfamiliar with design language. Over more than a year, alongside other projects at Thinkerbell, we worked closely with the Lifeline team to update the logo, colours, and create a system that worked across everything: OOH, digital, web design, digital display banners, TV end frames, social media, and physical media to be used internally and externally, storefronts, and brochures. With the refresh, the center dot now represents the person seeking help, surrounded by other dots symbolising the support network around them. The system was turned into a flexible design system with dot frames, lines that reference phone lines, stacked sections to house content suggesting a subtle upward smile, bringing a glimmer of hope and positivity to the brand, a suite of icons using the dot system, fresh illustrations, and a revitalised palette of primary colours blue, orange, and light beige, supported by secondary colours to give the brand depth and flexibility. The photography and illustrations were refreshed to incorporate diversity that was lacking in the original brand design, including different skin tones, body shapes, genders, ages, and more. The goal of refreshing the photography and illustrations was not only to incorporate diversity, but to evoke emotion and connection, capturing supportive moments between friends, family, and other relationships. Photography included people with disabilities, different gender expressions, and a balanced range of generations and ages, reflecting that suicide can affect anyone. Illustrations were aligned with this approach, showing the same diversity in people and visual scenarios to maintain consistency across the brand. On top of all that, we refreshed Lifeline’s retail stores, working even with Dulux to create a custom Lifeline blue durable outdoor paint that would withstand the harsh Australian sun and weather at over 250 stores across the country. We redesigned storefronts, billboards, and brochures to make the brand recognisable and consistent everywhere. This was a beast of a project, but also incredibly rewarding. Seeing the system come to life across OOH, digital, web, storefronts, and internal and external media, while working closely with the Lifeline team and building those relationships, made all the effort worth it.