This week’s blog was written by our Graphic Design intern, Freya, who helped to rebrand our rare disease charity as Beacon! Freya led the way on our rebrand, designing our new website and setting our brand direction (logo, colour scheme, typography, illustrations and overall concept). She determined the look and feel of our new print materials, and became a beloved member of our team. We were heartbroken to see her go, but we’re thrilled that she became a permanent Graphic Designer with Costello Medical down in London!
Join us as we say farewell and thank you to Freya. We are your biggest fans!
Can you sum up your time at Beacon for us?
Being responsible for helping Beacon rebrand has been such a fun and unique opportunity. Working on my own as a temporary member of the team was daunting at first and adjusting to a partially remote working style across both companies added another challenge to settling in, but I was very warmly welcomed by the team!
In my first month, I was lucky enough to be asked to create the branding for Beacon’s podcast, Rarely Heard, while we agreed and finalised Beacon’s branding concept. This on top of the rebrand made it clear that Beacon was in a time of change when I joined, which was a great learning opportunity.

Being part of this moment of change was a big motivational factor in my internship and seeing how the team were navigating it gave me confidence in sharing my ideas.
When we got the go-ahead for the chosen brand direction (logo, colour scheme, typography and overall concept), it was then a leap of faith into developing the actual materials and handling everything it involved!
Can you tell us about how you found developing our brand materials?

As a big fan of colour, I was initially motivated by the bright and contemporary colour palette and how many design opportunities this created. Sometimes this can work against you in design, as you can get overwhelmed by the blank page of endless possibilities. As time went on, I worked out how to create a language for the colours and gained confidence in applying this to Beacon’s various materials.
In a similar way, I wanted the new name and accompanying flame to be central to the brand identity through other graphic elements. Carrying the warmth of the flame across other materials while creating enough visual variation was an interesting design challenge, and one that I think I eventually rose to well!
It was exciting giving the charity a new voice across materials big and small, digital and printed. Seeing the brand come to life and knowing what it was ultimately going towards was incredibly rewarding!
The work was fast-paced and quite sprawling at times, but there was always time to have a much needed laugh with my Beacon colleagues and make numerous cups of tea and my strong Brazilian coffee for the team.
What are you up to since finishing your joint internship with us and Costello?
I am now working as a Graphic Designer at Costello Medical’s London office. It’s fun to be in a big city working with lovely colleagues and different clients, although I miss the Beacon team! Outside of work, I’m making the most of being able to travel and meet up with friends again, trying new foods, and seeing new parts of London.

Thank you Freya! We’ll miss you!
