Most brand projects that land in a studio usually come with a brief geared towards the outside world. Designers are asked to persuade consumers, attract donors or reassure stakeholders, and the work is shaped around how a brand shows up publicly.
On the contrary, the Woodland Trust’s latest project flips that model on its head. Instead of targeting the general public, the charity asked design studio Cubic to focus entirely on its own people.
While it is one of the UK’s most recognised conservation charities, it had discovered that its own brand was being misunderstood by the people who use it every day. Cubic’s job was to help untangle internal confusion and rebuild confidence from the inside out.
The force behind the work is “Us”, a warm and deliberately human campaign that aims to reintroduce the brand to its staff, inspire a sense of shared responsibility and strengthen the link between internal culture and public support. Although the brand has long been trusted externally, Cubic’s audit revealed that, internally, it had become difficult to navigate, overly complex, and, at times, treated as the sole domain of the marketing team. For a charity dependent on recognition, consistency and donations, this created an obvious risk.
Cubic began with a robust brand audit, speaking to teams across the organisation to understand where the real pain points sat. “We found that overcomplication and complexity were causing confusion, and that people were craving more context around what elements of the strategy were and the role they were playing,” says managing director Oliver Bingham.
Clearly, the issue wasn’t visual identity but comprehension. Staff simply didn’t feel connected to the strategy that sat beneath the logo.
During the research, it also became clear that many saw “brand” as a department rather than something they personally helped deliver. That perception had led to gaps in how people understood the link between recognition, support and donations.
Oliver explains: “There was a significant gap in understanding how it informed and directed culture, for example, because mostly it was just seen as ‘logo, colour and photos’.” The campaign needed to shift attitudes without patronising anyone or overwhelming them with jargon.
To tackle this, Cubic worked closely with the Trust to rebuild the brand’s strategy structure, simplifying language and stripping away abstract terminology. The team wanted every component to have a defined role and a more familiar feel, creating a foundation that would support the creative expression to follow. Once the strategic reset was in place, all roads pointed towards a single idea of togetherness.
That idea became “Us”, a name that signposts the behaviours and mindset needed across the organisation. Cubic knew the campaign had to feel human rather than corporate, so they turned to illustrator and animator Con McHugh to help bring the concept to life through work that could express emotion without slipping into cliché. His work lends the campaign a sense of warmth and approachability, with simple strokes revealing ideas around community, growth and focus in a way that feels immediate and uncomplicated.
Oliver says illustration became the natural answer because it could “simplify things in a way other forms of expression can’t.” Animation followed quickly. “You look at them as statics, and you can sense how each can be brought to life,” he adds. The movement helped Cubic unpack abstract themes and connect them back to the Trust’s purpose: woodlands, people and the planet.
To ensure the launch had weight, Cubic introduced something staff could hold in their hands. A bespoke book was created and sent to every employee, supported by a film voiced by Woodland Trust staff from across the UK. The choice to use multiple voices, accents and tones reinforced the campaign’s core message that pride and responsibility sit with everyone, not just one team.
The film uses a mix of graphics, footage and animation to tell a clear story about how brand understanding affects public trust and, ultimately, donations. Every creative decision was chosen to motivate, not lecture. Small details, such as pairing woodland shots with portraits of staff, subtly underscore that people and place are inseparable in the Trust’s mission.
Internal campaigns are notoriously hard to measure, but early signs suggest the message is landing. “We’ve been told more people have come forward to ask questions,” Oliver explains, noting that this shift alone was one of the campaign’s core objectives. The work is also being used as an induction tool for new starters, ensuring people understand the brand from day one rather than having to piece it together later.
A longer-term plan, built alongside Cubic, will keep the campaign alive. The idea is that “Us” becomes a constant presence rather than a one-off communications push. Oliver says, “It needs to be a tap that doesn’t get turned off.”
The Trust is already preparing follow-on activations designed to make the brand feel open, democratic and genuinely shared.
It may be an internal project, but its impact reaches far beyond staff handbooks. Reframing the brand as a collective commitment has helped reposition the Woodland Trust as an organisation where every person understands their role in creating recognition, familiarity and support. In the charity sector, where public trust is everything, that shift could prove more valuable than any external campaign.
