Identity and Branding Guidelines for Research Partners

Following the guidelines helps to support our primary objective of achieving scar free healing within a generation and transforming the lives of those affected by disfiguring conditions.

Our logo should appear with The Scar Free Foundation’s brand strapline ('Making a world without scars a reality') at least once on all research partner publications, and when used on partner websites. Depending on our relationship with the partner/researcher, there are different stipulations for where it should be positioned - refer to section 4.1 of the full guidelines.

Our primary brand colour is Pantone 185C (Please refer to section 3.2 of the full guidelines for further details). That colour should be used as an ‘accent’ colour, e.g. in headings and subheadings, on relevant literature. However, please avoid colour combinations or contrasts that may be difficult for those with a visual impairment.

Refer to our comprehensive ‘Branding Toolkit’ for further information on usage, size and positioning of our logo, brand strapline, and typeface.

Images should be professional, upbeat and reflect the diversity of our research community, patients and other key stakeholders. Photographs are our preferred type of image (rather than cartoons etc.), apart from when graphs or infographics are used to illustrate technical points. Refer to section 5.1-2 of the full guidelines for examples of good image use, tips about image resolution, and more.

You must obtain and record consent if taking photographs of staff and patients.

Grant holders and partners can also make use of our image library

In any written material, the author must acknowledge the support of The Scar Free Foundation. All websites and major publications relating to research funded by the Foundation should be checked with us before publication. Always capitalise the ‘The’ in our name, even mid-sentence.

There is a standard text (‘full funding statement’) which grant holders must use when referencing research funded by us in various places. Find this in section 6.1 of the full brand guidelines, along with the standard partnership statement.

There are specific requirements for acknowledgements in specific circumstances.

• Regarding publishing research findings, submitting research publications and acknowledgements in scientific journals, see section 6.2 of the full guidelines.
• Regarding pages on a partner's existing website: section 6.3
• Regarding any materials produced for patients: section 6.4
• Regarding research posters: section 6.5
• Regarding presentations (slideshows): section 6.6
• Regarding any name and/or logo developed for a particular programme or centre: section 6.7
• Regarding signage or plaques at research facilities: section 6.8
• Any project logos must be approved by us before use.

Any centre names or logos and all signage used must be approved by us.

When speaking publicly about research funded by us, for example to the media, at seminars or conferences, researchers should always acknowledge us for funding the research.

We should be clearly and prominently recognised as the funder in any relevant press release.

Please give us at least one week’s notice before publishing any release. We may want to provide a quote for the final release.

A standard piece of text about us should be used in the ‘notes to editors’ (also known as a media boilerplate) at the end of any release. Refer to section 7.4 of the full guidelines for this text.

We are on Twitter and LinkedIn. Please tag us in relevant social media posts, and include links to scarfree.org.uk and/or the hashtag #scarfree where possible. Please also retweet or share our posts, where relevant, to help raise awareness.

For three examples of Twitter posts, see section 8.1 of the full guidelines. We have also created a document to help partners consider their social media strategy around research projects, which is Appendix 2 to the full guidelines

Remember to never share research results or other sensitive information on social media unless agreed in advance with the Foundation.

The Scar Free Foundation’s logo and image library are available here.

Please contact the Foundation for advice on any aspect of using its resources. For media advice, contact its PR firm, Barley Communications. Find contact details in section 9 of the full guidelines.