Vorsprung durch Technik NHS style

Part of our starting point for the Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust project was to create a new brand name for the cafe and restaurant facilities. It needed to be a complete departure from the existing name to avoid any copyright issues (this complication arising due to the current restaurant services exiting Pfi contracts).

On our visits to the various hospital sites we noticed posters for the MY Hospitals Charity. Further digging revealed that the charity (and its name) were very popular. This turned out to be our spark for the new brand identity.

There’s a lovely story about the genesis of one of the most famous ad campaigns of all time. John Hegarty was visiting the Audi factory in Ingolstadt to go through the brief. Seeing the now famous phrase, Vorsprung durch Technik, on a battered and faded poster he was told that it was an old headline which they didn’t use any more. It translates to ‘advancement through technology’.

Back to our hospital setting - you could drown in an alphabet soup of letters making up very long words like neuropsychology and urogynaecology. So, for us, short and simple hit the spot. For Hegarty long and German did the trick.

It’s part of our approach at the start of a design or branding project. Eyes and ears open at all times, because you just never know…

We’re surrounded by inspiration all the time - you just need to be able to tune in and cancel out the noise.