Sue Breetzke

UK-based homeopath, Sue Breetzke, commissioned Nicework to create a personal brand for her to advertise her alternative medical approach. The design employs botanical design elements and recycled paper to effectively reflect Breetzke's natural remedies in a tactile and attractive way.

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Client: Sue Breetzke

Sue Breetzke is a homeopath based in the United Kingdom who offers alternative medical treatment through natural remedies.

Services:

Branding, Design

Discovery:

Nicework took time during the discovery period to get to know the client and her approach inside out. Sue Breetzke is a homeopath who focuses on using less invasive alternative therapies and natural remedies to treat her patients' ailments. However, she also tries to balance old-world knowledge with a modern approach to remain relevant. This information formed the basis of the brand concept and final design.

Sue Breetzke supplied a low-res photograph of a Chinese Lantern Berry, which she felt was a meaningful visual representation of her work. The entire plant is poisonous apart from the berry hidden inside the 'lantern', illustrating how homeopathy seeks to identify an ailment and cure it through natural, holistic means. Therefore, the Chinese Lantern Berry was chosen not only because of its aesthetic value, but also because it aptly described Sue Breetzke's homeopathic process.

Brief:

Sue Breetzke approached Nicework to create a personal brand for her company, which included the creation of logo, business cards, brochures and stationary. Some requirements of the brief:

• The design had to reflect the natural ethos of the client through botanical references and natural products
• The logo design had to utilise the image of the Chinese Lantern Berry
• Botanical and homeopathic design elements were a priority
• The design had to differentiate the client from her competitors

Challenges:

Nicework had to work creatively within a very limited brief. The client was very strict on the choice of image/visual for the logo, so there was little room for creative licence. Printed materials also had to be recyclable and environmentally friendly.

Tackling the brief:

Using the image and concept of the Chinese Lantern Berry as a starting point, a more streamlined linear version of the plant was created in a style that referenced traditional botanical illustration.

The lantern image was then transformed into a vectorised logo. Two versions were created, a high and low detail version, for greater flexibility and for ease of use in a variety of applications.

Green, dark brown and orange were chosen as the colour palette of the brand because of their natural and organic associations. They also referred to the natural colour cycle of the Chinese Lantern Berry, from cultivation to decay.

Business cards were created and set in a mixture of Bauer Bodoni and Univers fonts, creating a visually subtle play between old word medical knowledge and a more progressive modern approach. This encapsulated Sue Breetzke's service offering.

The branding was extended onto a series of informational brochures that employed the layout of bookplate design, with design elements referring to natural history and homeopathy. The design treatment worked to separate Sue Breetzke from all the other homeopaths in the UK who tended to make their brochures look more clinical and scientific to increase their credibility. We played on the alternate view that Sue Breetzke's homeopathy promotes by using honest organic design.

The paper used for all printed material was made from unbleached, 80% recycled paper to further reinforce Sue Breetzke's green approach.

Result:

• A happy client
• The creation of a personal brand that clearly expresses the client's identity and ethos through beautiful design
• An enduring brand that still retains its efficacy 6 years after it was created
• Increased patient database
• Increased credibility for the client within the alternative medicine community
• The completion of a project that met all the needs and goals outlined by the client