I was asked how the PIP Kit logo came about, so have pulled out some of the intermediary design files to explain this. It is not an important thing in itself, but the story does touch on a number of parts of the study.
The earliest aspect of the study which contributed to the logo concept was the creation and deployment of a design probe in May 2019. A short qualitative survey was conducted with the partner advice agency to gather data on appointment issues to inform the subsequent workshops, and also to raise the profile of the study helping with later participant recruitment.
Double-sided 120mm square response cards were designed for the survey’s short questionnaire. Each card had questions to document the type of meeting, when it was planned and what went wrong.
A container was needed to act as both a store for blank cards, and to collect completed ones. This led to a squarish-looking box which was almost a cube, laser-cut from 6mm birch plywood and assembled with PVA glue to fix the joints.
One container was placed in the advice agency’s reception area to report on appointments where the service user did not attend, and one near practitioners to report on appointments which were affected by other issues.
There was a lot of positive feedback from advisors about the laser-cut containers. The 120mm response cards were the inspiration for the shape and size of the diary cards, and the container for what became the laser-cut PIP Kit enclosure.
Squares became the starting point for the logo, since it hinted at the shape of the physical diary cards. It also reflected the idea of PIP Kit being an enclosure or box for multiple diary components.
The square shape and the health-related aspect of Personal Independence Payment benefit led to the idea of using the cross symbol, utilised in some cultures to identify first-aid kits or other medical resources.
Removing the colour to work on the logo.
Narrowing down the cross to reduce its prominence.
Splitting the cross into three parts…. so that the vertical lines can be the letters “I” in the middle of the capitalised words “PIP” and “KIT”. Converted to solid black for this step.
Letters for addition to the logo’s design.
Combined split cross and letters.
Background colour changed to dark brown (sampled from the laser-cut edge of the plywood boxes).
Letter dimensions and spacing altered to balance the whitespace between the four letters, the lines and border of the shape (after being prompted by a near neighbour who is somewhat of a typographic guru).
An alternative colour representing the pale birch plywood of the response card container and the PIP Kit enclosure.
The logo in use inside the PIP Kit enclosure, and on the camera wrapper.