Kids Help Phone (KHP) was born in 1989 as a phone line with a singular mission – to ensure no young person in Canada was alone in their time of need. It’s since evolved, innovating to build accessible services to support youth through everything, from the timeless (exams and breakups) to the timely (climate anxiety and gender dysphoria). And now, despite its name, serves ages 5-29, in multiple languages with services including phone, text, chat, web resources, and a peer-to-peer forum. 

But, with a smiling speech bubble and ‘kid’ and ‘phone’ in the name, how was anyone to realize the breadth of KHP’s offering? It was hard to imagine a kid at their brink would look at this brand expression and see KHP for what it is — a (sometimes literal) lifeline.

We had to reinvigorate the brand’s identity to make it as relevant to youth as the organization itself.

To make the KHP brand identity as relevant to youth today and reintroduce them to a brand they could continue to trust, we took inspiration from the heart of what we do: Help. From worries about climate change to band breakups, KHP helps with all matters, big or small. And thus, ‘Help In All Sizes’ was born – a flexible design system with room for all youth and all their feelings. Bold and youthful, the identity is representative of those KHP serves and their ambition to break down mental health barriers for a world where all youth feel safe and comfortable to express themselves and access help, no matter how big or small their problems. Because youth isn’t one size fits all. And neither are we.

To keep the focus on what we do (‘Help’), we utilized the “H” for “Help” as a design element that reinforces the concept of ‘Help In All Sizes’. A modular logo that stretches and shrinks to fit any channel, emotion, or tool was created, demonstrating the extensive service offering. As the organization is no longer just a phone number for kids, we turned KHP into a brandmark to house the organization’s name, paving the way to eventually remove the wordmark entirely. A colourful palette of 14+ hues was chosen to maintain flexibility when talking about all feelings and diverse experiences. The ’H frame’ from the brandmark acts as a window into youth’s worlds – framing moments where they can see themselves reflected in the brand. The new identity now lives across all Kids Help Phone and partner touchpoints, including their website, social, OOH, direct, digital, merch and ambient spaces.

The new design system was created to increase the brand’s relevance for youth. Following it’s launch, belief that KHP understands and is relevant to diverse populations of youth rose by 11 points, and belief that they can talk to KHP about anything increased by 4-points.

Our ambition to better reflect the diversity of KHP’s audience through a more inclusive design system was also achieved. Youth reported that one of their primary reasons for connecting with KHP was because they could talk to someone who understands them, their culture, beliefs, and in their language. This belief rose by 6 points in youth overall and by 16 points amongst Black youth.

The new logo effectively communicated that no problem is too big or too small for KHP within two key audience segments, Indigenous and rural youth, by 14- and 4-point increases, respectively.

Sources: KHP Brand Health Tracking, Waves 2 (2022) & (2023)