As part of the recent renewal of the Helen Macpherson Smith Trust, a new system of displaying the objectives and criteria of the grants was established. Known as the HMSTrust Grants Matrix, it sets out to communicate the machinations of the grant process, as well as being a ‘report card’ on grant applications.

This matrix was considered so successful and pivotal within the new grants structure, it was then extrapolated out to incorporate the revised identity system, featuring the founder’s signature as the bridge between the grant applicant and the outcome (the two black bars either side). In this way, the brandmark represents not only the persona of the organisation but also the internal processes in an almost diagrammatic form.

HMSTrust grants matrix

As the designer of the past several years HMSTrust Annual Reports, Melbourne design studio Letterbox had the advantage of understanding the system and being able to incorporate the new aspects of the matrix without losing the graphic essence and meaning of Helen’s signature. The typography from the annual reports (Sabon and Univers) was then incorporated into the identity and website.

As part of the new website launch, we understand you might experience some small issues or bugs. If so, please feel free to contact us and we’ll tidy these up.