NEXT CHAPTER BEREAVEMENT
Branding and website designCounselling & social care
Founded by Fiona Wadforth, Next Chapter Bereavement Services provides bespoke coaching, counselling and consultancy services to widowed parents, bereaved children and schools either face to face or virtually. With 15+ years of professional experience in children’s mental health, coupled with Fiona’s own experience of young widowhood, Next Chapter provides bespoke therapeutic and consultancy services for the child and the support network around them.
The brief
Fiona had a really strong story behind her business name, Next Chapter and the ethos of our lives being a big long book with a series of chapters. Facing adversity and big change is something everyone has to do in life and in even in the darkest moments, there's the opportunity for a 'next' of something .. a hope for something brighter and change being possible for everyone. I really wanted to work with this initial idea, without making Fi’s main logos ‘literally’ about books and stories, as the theme ran so much deeper than that.
Inspiration then came from how the seasons change, the light in the dark, as well as the comfort we can find by being outside in nature. We came up with a soft, warm, colour palette, using natural tones of green and yellow as the hero colours, linking back to nature, alongside the softness of black and white earthy photography. To the imagery we added bespoke hand drawn elements, linking back to finding light in those dark times. Flower illustrations were added to represent growth, change and hopeful moments. Lots of white space was included for an overall sense of calm throughout. It was important for Fiona’s clients and prospective clients, to not feel overwhelmed when they found her website online. This was a really important factor that we considered while designing Next Chapter’s brand toolkit and website.
Keywords for this brief: Hope, connection, calm, welcoming, nurturing.
“As a bereavement counsellor and coach moving into private practice, I was offered plenty of advice about how to do branding and get my business noticed. Nowadays there is a lot of emphasis on social media as a way of promoting your services and whilst I do use this, I also knew I wanted something that offered a more professional look. That was about as much as I knew when I first met Emma, but through her very thorough questionnaires, she helped me develop a clearer idea of the values of my business, who my clients were and how I wanted to help people. Emma has a very clear process with her work, alongside clear timescales which I found helpful ... but crucially she also has flexibility in this, which I found even more helpful! Her communication is excellent, so I always felt I knew what was happening and when I didn't understand something, Emma was clear in her explanations. Emma makes the whole process very collaborative ensuring I felt fully involved in all decision making. I am so thrilled with the branding Emma did for me plus the website design that she created. She has totally captured the 'feeling' I wanted to create for clients visiting my page. I would thoroughly recommend her to anyone looking for support in branding and website design. I had absolutely no clue where to start and Emma was a total pro in guiding this complete novice through the whole process."Fiona Wadforth - Next Chapter Bereavement Services
