Relate

The story

Every Relate bracelet begins in a beading circle in one of Cape Town's townships, where senior beaders, the gogos and tatas (grandmothers and grandfathers), thread the beads beside young crafters. Relate describes those circles as “filled with laughter and connection”. Each sale then splits three ways: an income for the people who made it, a donation to a cause, and the running costs that keep Relate going.

Sixteen years on, the idea had outgrown its brand. The guidelines were ten years old, the packaging had started to feel tired, and with more than 50 partner charities sharing the shelf, the Relate name was getting lost behind theirs. Relate wanted to reach a younger audience and hold its own in retail, while keeping every cause in view.

Built from the bead

Relate's digital partner set the bar early on:

“Patterns and graphic elements should lean into something that is authentic to Relate, rather than introducing a purely decorative visual language that could belong to any brand.”

So everything starts with the bead. We refined the R bead logo, and a string of beads became the pattern, the frame around Relate's photographs and the shape of its impact model: Uplift, Sustain, Support. Libre Franklin's rounded letterforms echo the beads, and Vollkorn gives the headlines a handmade warmth.

Colour took two rounds. We showed one route that pushed Relate's brights further and one that leant towards earthier tones, and Relate came back asking for colours that feel “modern and bright, but still premium”. Cream, brown and clay now anchor eight brighter colours, four of which code the cause pillars, each with an icon of its own.

In the buyer's hand

The fold-over card keeps the shape Relate's customers know, now with Relate leading on the outside. Open it, and the card tells the buyer what their bracelet has done:

“You didn't just buy a bracelet. You donated to a cause and created jobs.”

Insert card templates cover Relate's own causes, its retail partners and fully bespoke corporate packs, with clear rules for how far a partner's brand can flex. Photography guidance for studio shoots and phone captures lets Relate's team and partners keep it all consistent on their own.

Where it landed

Weeks before sign-off, Relate's CEO asked for the files so she could use “some of the beautiful design elements from the brand refresh” in that Friday's pitches. When the guidelines reached Relate's chairman, his reply was short:

“Looking good, and also love the direction of travel.”

Scope
Brand refresh, brand guidelines, packaging system, iconography, photography direction

Deliverable
Brand, packaging and photography guidelines, with templates for Relate's team and partners