Branding / Raphyra
A protective hand for regulated healthcare: the Raphyra brand identity, UK
Industry
Life Sciences & Health Tech
Geography
United Kingdom
Services
Brand Identity · Stationery · Guidelines
4directions in the first round
2identities presented in full
3readings in one symbol: hand, bird, eye
28pages of brand guidelines
Raphyra is a UK life sciences and health technology company. It works where regulated healthcare, clinical research support, drug safety (pharmacovigilance) and clinician-facing software meet.
Its audience is senior and expert: clinicians, research partners, pharmaceutical companies and healthcare organisations. The identity had to read as credible to every one of them, and still feel human.
The identity kicked off in May 2026. The final files went out in July 2026.
- Client
- Raphyra
- Industry
- Life sciences, clinical research support, pharmacovigilance and digital health
- Geography
- United Kingdom
- Audience
- Clinicians, research collaborators, pharmaceutical companies and healthcare organisations
- Services
- Brand identity design
- Deliverables
- Symbol and wordmark in four colour versions, colour system, typography, business cards, letterhead, envelope, social media templates, 28-page brand guidelines
- Year
- 2026
- Logo live on
- raphyra.com
From a crowded category to one symbol
Read the category
We started with research into how UK healthcare, clinical research and drug-safety brands present themselves. Most lean on blue, teal and green, rounded type, and crosses, leaves or shields. The brief came down to one tension: clinical seriousness and human warmth, in the same identity.
Put four directions on the table
The first round showed four marks: a person at the centre of care, a ginkgo bloom, a geometric “ra”, and an R monogram. Raphyra's team asked for something more specific to the brand and more contemporary.
Draw the hand
The second round started from an open hand. Two versions went forward: Wings of Care, where the hand also reads as a bird, and the Gentle Hand, with an eye held in the palm.
Present both as full identities
Wings of Care was presented as a complete identity in Deep Mulberry, a colour chosen to step away from healthcare blue. At the client's request we built out a second concept in full too, so both could be judged as systems.
Settle the blue
Raphyra chose Wings of Care and asked for blue in place of mulberry. We set two blues side by side. Its stakeholders picked Deep Ocean for the logo and kept Trust Blue in the palette as the accent.
Write it down
The approved mark became a system, set out in ten chapters of brand guidelines: overview, personality, logo, colour, type, visual language, imagery, stationery, social media and tone of voice.
The idea
Read it as a hand, a bird or an eye. All three are meant.
The symbol is a soft, open hand: support, reassurance, responsibility. That is the first reading, and the one that matters most for a company in healthcare.
Look again and the thumb becomes a bird's head and the fingers its wings, lifting. The space between palm and fingers forms an eye, for attention, clinical observation and patient safety.
The hand also draws on the Hamsa, a long-standing symbol of protection and watchfulness, without quoting it. Protection and vigilance are what drug safety and clinical governance exist for.
Colour
A deep blue that sits apart from the bright ones
Healthcare blue is usually bright and clinical. Deep Ocean is darker and quieter, close to navy, so it reads as serious and settled.
Trust Blue does the small jobs: trims, dividers, data and highlights. Most of every layout is Clinical Mist, a near-white, with Graphite for text. The guidelines set the balance at 70% mist, 20% Deep Ocean and 10% Trust Blue, so the brand stays calm on a page full of clinical detail.
Typography
A modern sans for headings, a reading serif for the detail
DM Sans sets the wordmark and the headlines: clear, modern and easy to read at any size.
Newsreader carries the longer reading, in reports, proposals and clinical communication. A serif slows the eye just enough for dense material, and it gives the brand an editorial, thoughtful voice beside the clean sans. Both are free Google Fonts, so every team and supplier can use them.
Stationery
Business cards, letterhead and envelope, ready for a UK printer
Horizontal and vertical cards at 85 × 55 mm, an A4 letterhead with two footer options, and a DL envelope, all supplied print-ready with bleed. At Raphyra's request the letterhead follows UK conventions and was shown with a sample letter, so the team could judge the layout in use. Shown here as presentation mockups with sample details.
Social media
Templates the team can fill without breaking the brand
Post, carousel and story templates for Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn, in the sizes each platform uses. Every template keeps the same structure, so a new post looks like Raphyra before anyone reads it.
What it means for you
An identity built for a regulated business
01
Start from the category
02
Decide with the whole system in view
03
Hand over the rules with the files
How do you design a healthcare brand that doesn't look like every other healthcare brand?
We look at the category first. For Raphyra, the research showed UK health and life sciences brands leaning on the same blues, teals and greens, rounded type, and crosses, leaves or shields. So the identity carries its distinction in the symbol, an ownable idea, rather than in a colour nobody else uses.
What do we get in a brand identity project?
For Raphyra: the symbol and wordmark in full colour, blue, white and black, as vector and PNG files; the colour system; the typefaces; business cards, letterhead and envelope as print-ready files; templates for Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn; and 28 pages of brand guidelines that set out how it all fits together.
Can you show more than one direction before we commit?
Yes. Raphyra saw four directions in the first round, then two hand marks, then two complete identities side by side before choosing one. A logo on its own is hard to judge, so we show a direction as a system when the decision needs it.
Do you work with UK companies from India?
For the record
Raphyra brand identity: the facts
WowMakers designed the brand identity for Raphyra, a UK life sciences and health technology company working across clinical research support, pharmacovigilance and clinician-facing digital health. The work ran from May to July 2026. Its symbol is an open hand that also reads as a bird in flight and holds an eye-shaped space at its centre, for care, protection and clinical attention. The delivery covers the symbol and DM Sans wordmark in four colour versions, a colour system led by Deep Ocean Blue, DM Sans and Newsreader typography, print-ready business cards, letterhead and envelope, social media templates for Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn, and 28 pages of brand guidelines. WowMakers has been designing since 2011.
Work with us
Building a brand for a regulated industry?
We start with how your field already looks and what your buyers need to believe. The symbol, the colour and the rules all come from that.
See more of our branding services and work, or browse our case studies.
