Scratch page · internal + for Ben

DH:PNS logo brief & mockups

A brief Ben can work from, plus developed mockups of the recommended direction. Everything here is drawn in code as a wireframe, it's meant to fix the direction and give Ben a concrete starting point, not to be the final art.

A note for Ben

Ben, thanks for taking this on... glad to have your eye on it.

Quick context: DH:PNS is our flagship digital health course, endorsed by WHO and ITU and now backed by the Gates Foundation for a new AI module. The old identity was a dated, donor-subcontractor look, and we've already rebuilt the site around something cleaner and more modern. What's below is a brief plus mockups meant to fix the direction and save you a blank-page start, not to box you in.

The mockups are drawn in code, so please read them as intent, not finished art. If you see a stronger move than the systems-heart, show us... that's exactly what we want you for. The one thing we'd love your take on early is palette, there's a note on it in the brief.

Everything else, requirements and deliverables, is below. Looking forward to what you do with it.

Nick

The goal

Replace the flat "DH:PNS" text mark with a real identity: a symbol plus a wordmark that reads as modern, credible, and unmistakably about health. It has to hold its own next to WHO, ITU, and Gates Foundation lockups without competing with them.

Keep vs. leave behind

Carry forward the two things with real equity: the association with WHO and ITU, and the heart-and-pulse motif from the old brand, which is the one genuinely ownable, instantly-legible-as-health asset it had. Leave behind everything else from 2019: the isometric clip-art, the flat drop-shadow icons, the stock heartbeat imagery, the italic serif.

What the mark should say

Recommended direction

A heart as the symbol, paired with a clean wordmark. Within that, my lead mockup is the "systems heart", a heart built from connected nodes, which fuses the health read (Sheerin's steer, old-brand continuity) with the coordination read (the hero and the course thesis) in a single ownable mark. Two simpler heart-and-pulse variations are shown alongside if you'd rather keep it literal.

Requirements for the final mark

Palette (open decision)

These mockups use the site's current teal and coral so you're judging form, not color. The live question is whether we evolve the old navy-and-orange for brand continuity, or keep teal/coral. That call drives Ben's color work, so it's worth settling before he starts final art.

Deliverables from Ben

Open questions

Recommended symbol · three variations to react to
Systems heart MY PICK

Health + coordination in one mark. Most ownable.

Solid heart + pulse

The literal, most direct evolution of the old mark.

Outline heart + pulse

Lighter, airier. Reads well small, gentler presence.

The lockup system · using the systems heart
Primary lockup (horizontal)
DHPNS
Stacked lockup (formal / print)
Digital Health
Planning National Systems
Symbol alone
Wordmark alone & favicon
DHPNS
In context
Digital Health: Planning National Systems
Also considered (from the first pass)
Network

Pure systems read. Strong, but says "tech" more than "health." The systems heart absorbs its best idea.

DHPNS
Wordmark only

Cleanest and most institutional, but no symbol to carry the brand at small sizes. Better as the wordmark half of a lockup.