Maitri Trust - Refreshing the identity of a global education charity
About the Client
Maitri Trust is an international education charity focused on improving access to quality learning. As a non-profit organisation, its mission is to transform government run primary education systems in India and South Africa, removing barriers that prevent children from thriving in school.
The trust is committed to long term, systemic change. Its work supports education equity and helps create fairer systems for children across the Global South.
Project Brief
The existing charity branding felt outdated and inconsistent. It did not reflect Maitri Trust’s work in international education, nor did it communicate the organisation’s core values or goals. It also lacked the flexibility needed for use across print and digital channels.
Maitri Trust approached Scotland based creative agency Transform Creative to deliver a full non profit identity redesign. The goal was to build a visual identity that felt modern, meaningful and practical – one that would support the organisation’s vision and make it easier to tell their story.
Creative Approach
Working as part of the Transform Creative team, Mr Smith Creative led a collaborative brand workshop with key members of the Maitri Trust team. This session explored the trust’s mission, core values, target audiences and creative preferences. It provided the insights needed to shape a strong creative brief.
A wide range of early concepts were explored and tested. Ideas rooted in fairness, connection and shared purpose resonated strongly. However, obvious visuals like people or animals felt too limited. Maitri Trust needed a design that reflected the universality of its work across different countries and cultures.
The final concept centred around a rope motif – a flexible design element that could be interpreted as the letter M, or as two coloured strands interwoven. This symbol of strength, connection and collaboration felt authentic and distinctive. It became the foundation for a broader visual system that supported storytelling across all platforms.
The tone of voice and brand messaging were developed in partnership with Jonothan Nielson of Words for Brands. His work brought clarity and emotional depth to Maitri’s story
Execution
Colours were carefully selected to avoid political associations or cultural taboos. Instead, the focus was on positivity, clarity and usability. The colour palette gave the brand a strong but friendly presence, with the flexibility to work across a wide range of communications.
To support visual storytelling, we asked Maitri Trust’s partners to share authentic classroom imagery. These real world photographs helped root the brand in lived experience – showing the impact of education equity through the eyes of teachers and children.
The new brand system combined a distinctive logo, accessible colour scheme, image library and font pairing to form a confident and practical identity. This was applied across brochures, fundraising materials and promotional designs.
The new website was designed by Mr Smith Creative and built by expert developer Pete Urwin. It followed the new brand guidelines and was optimised for accessibility, storytelling and ease of use – key to any successful non profit identity design.
A comprehensive brand guidelines document was also produced. This covered everything from logo usage and colour to writing style and tone. It provides a toolkit for future brand consistency and creative development.
Impact
The new branding was enthusiastically received by the Maitri Trust team and their global partners. It has made it easier to tell the charity’s story, communicate its impact and engage new audiences.
Since the launch, we have continued to work with Maitri Trust on new design and communication projects. The refreshed identity has strengthened their visibility and increased confidence in their outward presence – an important step for any charity working in international development.
Review
“Andy is a delight to work with. He's full of creative energy, enthusiasm and ideas, which is what you want from a designer. At the same time he's also very professional and hardworking. I can always trust him to get the job done with the minimum of fuss. Andy has a lot of experience of the design industry which gives him a great understanding of how to pull a design project together and give clients what they need. I would definitely recommend him.”
Elspeth Wray, Enterprise Manager
Transform Creative
