Electrical Safety First
Rebrand
The world is changing, be ready for the electric era 2.0 - the client
Electrical Safety First is a UK charitable organisation dedicated to protecting the public from the dangers of electricity. Its core mission is to raise awareness of the growing risks associated with modern electrical use. With children spending more time on electronic devices, the widespread adoption of e-scooters and electric vehicles, and AI accelerating technological integration, the dangers are increasing. Every year, more people lose their lives or suffer life-changing injuries due to electrical hazards, making public knowledge and awareness essential.
As a campaigning brand, Electrical Safety First must cut through the marketing noise and remain memorable. Its audience spans four main groups — the general public, landlords, manufacturers, and government — with the general public being the prime focus. If the public understands the dangers and demands change, it becomes easier to influence the other groups.
The charity’s work includes:
- Raising awareness about frayed cables and counterfeit products without safety standards.
- Lobbying for stronger electrical safety laws.
- Educating and advising landlords.
- Providing access to experts.
- Increasing awareness of product recalls.
This rebrand comes at a critical time. With the UK’s climate target of net zero carbon emissions by 2050, electricity will play a larger role in daily life than ever before. Even now, over half of all domestic fires in the UK are caused by electrical faults. With its mission more urgent than ever, Electrical Safety First is expanding its reach to help prevent deaths and serious injuries.
The brief
The brand had become outdated and struggled to achieve cut-through. As a leading branding agency in London with expertise in charity branding, we began by assessing whether a rebrand was the right move. Our process involved a full brand audit, benchmarking, and extensive quantitative and qualitative research to evaluate both risks and opportunities.
Our findings showed that the brand identity was fragmented — with inconsistent colours, illustration styles, tone of voice, and design application. This inconsistency weakened recognition. Unprompted recall was low across most of the UK, with prompted recall only marginally better. By contrast, other campaigning charities such as Gas Safe Register, Brake, Think!, and ROSPA enjoyed much higher brand awareness.
The existing tagline, “The UK’s Electrical Safety Experts”, simply repeated what the descriptive brand name already conveyed, adding little value. However, research confirmed that the name “Electrical Safety First” was well-liked and clear in meaning.
We also examined successful campaign strategies used by similar organisations, creating a blueprint for how ESF could approach future marketing.
The solution
Our research included AI-driven colour analysis, which revealed that red — ESF’s primary colour — was the most commonly used among charities, often linked to health emergencies and danger. While the latter connection was relevant to safety, we chose to break away from this convention. The new primary colour, electric green, features a distinctive glowing effect that symbolises the universal“power on” icon and represents making a positive change in electrical safety.
A new primary brand mark replaces the previous coil-like icon with a modern design combining the letter “e” (for “electrical”) with the globally recognised power-on symbol.
The old palette of red, brown, blue, green, yellow, and grey was inspired by electrical wiring colours. However, the concept didn’t resonate with the public, and the colours lacked harmony. We developed a vibrant new primary and secondary palette of electric tones that work cohesively across all media.
Photography guidelines now combine grainy black-and-white imagery (conveying risk and danger) with bold colour washes from the new palette (signalling modern optimism). This juxtaposition creates visual impact and delivers a powerful message.
We also developed a suite of modern, simple, and animated icons representing common electrical hazards such as fire, shock, explosion, toxic fumes, and water-electricity dangers. These are optimised for digital marketing and consumer engagement.
The new strapline, “Powering Change + Saving Lives”, reflects the charity’s three-fold mission:
- Campaigning for legislative change.
- Raising industry standards.
- Influencing consumer behaviour.
The plus symbol (+) reinforces the positive electric charge concept while visually breaking from conventional phrasing.
Our brand audit also revealed a lack of consistency across ESF’s conferences, campaigns, and micro sites. We implemented a clear sub-brand architecture to ensure cohesion and maximise brand equity across all touchpoints.
Finally, we replaced the dated typeface with a clean, modern font inspired by digital device displays — reinforcing ESF’s reputation for technical expertise.
The impact
The new brand identity positions Electrical Safety First as a future-facing, leading-edge organisation with national significance. It is flexible in content and messaging, consistent in tone, visually distinctive, and designed for high cut-through. The juxtaposition of optimism and risk draws audiences in, then delivers a clear, urgent message.
Accessibility is central to ESF’s values. The new brand meets DDA and W3C standards, and braille versions of the logo have been developed to ensure inclusivity.
Results and Reflection
This project brought together a smart, collaborative client who understood the value of branding, robust research and auditing, and a bold creative vision. The result is a confident, powerful rebrand — delivered by a branding consultancy in London — that ensures Electrical Safety First is ready to lead the conversation on electrical safety for years to come.
