Round Britain. In Winter. For All of Us.

Tuesday 6th October
by Phil Holmes
Category: Journal

Some projects arrive as a brief. Every so often, one arrives as a cause.

Winter Mission/Britain was very much the second kind. From our first conversation with Harvey, Seamus and Tom, we knew this wasn’t going to be work we delivered and quietly moved on from.

We created the identity and a simple website for the mission, pro bono. But honestly, the work is only part of the story. This is a piece about three people attempting something extraordinary, and why we’re standing right behind them.

The mission

This winter, Harvey, Seamus and Tom will run the length and breadth of Britain. Not in the kinder months. In winter, along one coastal path, for 180 days.

That’s 5,240 miles and 84,000 metres of climbing, through the shortest days and the hardest weather the British coast can throw at them. They’ll sleep wherever they stop, and meet people who care along the way.

They aren’t elite athletes with a support convoy and a sports science team. They’re three friends who make their living outdoors, who run, kayak, swim, cycle and climb. They believe that taking on something seemingly impossible is one of the loudest ways to be heard. The mission exists to raise awareness of climate change, inequality and mental health, and to raise money for charities doing real work on the ground.

One of those is R World, a grassroots foundation set up in memory of Robbie Curtis. Robbie was a friend to all three of them, and he lost his battle with depression several years ago. The money raised will fund new mental health initiatives rooted in sport and the outdoors, the very places that give so many of us our footing.

Another is Action for Conservation, which inspires young people from diverse backgrounds to become the next generation of environmental leaders.
So when they talk about fighting for the future, they mean it in the most personal sense possible.

Why we gave our time

We chose to do this work pro bono, and it was one of the easiest decisions we’ve made as a studio.

Mental health, the climate and the opportunities young people are given aren’t abstract issues to us. They touch our team, our families, our clients and the communities we work in. Most of us know someone like Robbie. Many of us have found clarity on a hillside or a stretch of coastline when nothing else was working.

When three people are willing to give half a year of their lives to these causes, the least we can do is give them a brand that stands up and gets noticed. What they’re doing isn’t a stunt. It’s grief, hope and sheer stubbornness turned into action, and we wanted to help them carry it.

An identity with grit and gravity

The brief was clear about what this shouldn’t be. Endurance branding has a familiar look: aggressive, shouty, built around finisher medals and personal bests. Winter Mission/Britain isn’t about a personal best. It’s about something far bigger than the people doing it.

So we worked in the tension between two worlds. On one side, the raw defiance of activism, people standing up and refusing to accept how things are. On the other, the gravitas of a serious expedition, with all the discipline and preparation a winter circuit of Britain demands. Our answer was a disciplined, crafted frame holding something raw and defiant at its heart.

Three ideas had to live in the mark: doing the impossible, the Power of 3, and fighting for the future. Three people, three causes, one coastline. We kept the name as a single, locked mark rather than a flexible system, because this mission needed to feel singular and unshakeable.

It also had to work hard in the real world. It will be stitched onto kit and patches and worn through storms. It will appear across film and social as the guys share their journey. And it will sit in front of partners and funders who can help the mission go further.

A website that gets out of the way

The website is deliberately simple. When three people are about to spend half a year on a winter coastline, a site’s job isn’t to impress. It’s to help.

It tells the story of the mission in a few honest lines and shows the full route around Britain. It lets anyone track the guys live and come out to say hello. It introduces the charities, makes donating easy, and gives sponsors and supporters a clear way in. We designed it, and our friends at Flair Digital brought it to life in development.
Nothing more than it needs to be, and everything it needs to do.

Come along with them

On paper, this is a route, a set of numbers and a fundraising target. In reality, it’s three friends heading out into dark winter mornings because they believe it matters. Because Robbie mattered. Because the young people who will inherit this planet matter.

They can’t do it alone, and they don’t want to. Here’s how you can be part of it:

We’re incredibly proud to have played a small part in this, and prouder still to call ourselves supporters. Harvey, Seamus and Tom, we’ll be following every mile.

Do the impossible. Bring it on.

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