While the condition of cleft lip and/or palette is one commonly associated with babies and small children, it is also a condition that affects people throughout their lives, requiring surgeries, specialized dentistry, speech therapy, and other accommodations. So the child-like, smiley-faced logo that the Cleft Lip and Palate Association had used for 47 years just didn’t represent the full range of people that the charity supported.
Megan, a designer with The Team, was born with a cleft, and her experience thoroughly informed the new logo and identity. From a Design Week article: “The new identity is built around the concept of a ‘Thread for Life’ .…[T]his was born from the reality of the surgery itself. Megan shared with us how closing her cleft gap required a lot of surgery and quite literally a thread to close the gap. That is where the thread device was initiated. We took that through into what we call the CLAPA display typeface. We also wanted to ensure both lip and palate were represented equally, hence the emphasis of the thread on the L and P in the logo.”
