How our refreshed brand is helping St John Ambulance to put the power of first aid in everybody’s hands

Life is wonderful. And unpredictable. Emergencies can happen anywhere, at any time: cardiac arrest, choking, bleeding, heat stroke, mental health crises, as well as broken bones, cuts and concussions. When every moment counts, the difference is whether someone nearby knows what to do.

For almost 150 years, St John Ambulance has been at the heart of first aid in England. We’re trusted, well known and valued by generations of people.

But our brand has not being telling our full story.

People know we deliver first aid at events, but they have a limited understanding of all the other things we do. Many people don’t realise we were a charity. Our brand is seen as old fashioned and inaccessible. In short – we are not presenting ourselves as the innovative, modern, diverse, and accessible charity we are.

As we developed our 2026 to 2028 organisational strategy, and asked people what they thought of today’s St John Ambulance, we saw opportunities to strengthen our brand, to bring greater clarity to who we are, what we stand for and the difference we make.

A brand that confidently expresses everything that we do and is still instantly recognisable as St John Ambulance

So today, on the first day of Save a Life September, we’re proud to start rolling out St John Ambulance’s refreshed brand. You’ll see it appear gradually over the coming months, avoiding any unnecessary waste or costs, starting with this website, our social media channels, and on our Save a Life September campaign materials.

Below you can read some more on the thinking behind this change and what we hope to achieve…

A long history in a changing world

Although our mission remains steadfast, how we deliver it has changed a lot since we last reviewed our brand over a decade ago. How we communicate has changed too, and there’s so much more we want people to know about what we do and why, including our:

long history as first aid community educators
youth programmes, that give young people from age five through to university students the chance to learn, practise and deliver first aid with confidence
ground-breaking street first aid programmes, which equip young people in underserved communities with the skills to respond to injuries resulting from street violence
critical care and neonatal services, with their expert crews and state-of-the-art ambulance equipment, that keep critically ill babies and transplant patients alive during vital transfers
Innovations in workplace training and supplies
fundraising and partnership opportunities
public awareness campaigns on issues like gender inequality in CPR survival, the growing need for workplace mental health training, as well as how to do first aid

A brand built around purpose

Working with over 6,000 people, including volunteers, customers, young people, partners, as well as people who hadn’t had any interaction with St John, we set about trying to understand how we could clearly, cohesively and compellingly explain everything that we do, the huge difference we make - and so inspire more people to learn lifesaving first aid, and to support us as a charity.

Things took shape around some consistently expressed themes.

We are human centred, connecting with people in an authentic way.
We’re a diverse community of people from all walks of life, united by a desire to help others.
We’re bold and confident, eager to step up to a challenge and be the first on the scene.
We want to democratise first aid so that everyone can do it. With a population 58 million in England, we need to scale up first aid education.

And so, our brand purpose statement was born, tested and embraced, sitting firmly at the heart of our organisational strategy and connecting everything we do – from preparing people to respond to an emergency, to being there when action is needed.

A graphic featuring the St John Ambulance purpose statement - "The power of first aid. In everybody's hands." surround with images of ambulances, volunteers, fundraisers, and historical images.

We put the power of first aid into everybody’s hands.
So that we are all closer to help in an emergency.
Every person. Every place. Every time.

Bringing our brand to life visually

With our purpose and positioning in place, we turned our attention to how the brand looks and feels. Working with teams across and outside St John Ambulance we tested a new design system. The aim was simple: create one distinctive, flexible brand that could work across our diverse audiences, many activities and all marketing channels.

Importantly, this is a brand refresh, not a rebrand. We’ve retained what makes us recognisable but moved to a more distinctive and modern look that brings what we do to life across the full range of our work – from educate to respond.

Green remains our primary colour, but we now have a range of greens and supporting colours to use too.

The Maltese Cross that connects us to our heritage has been used throughout the graphic system, developed into a contemporary, dynamic, animated graphic device.

Our new photography style shows people as part of the community, but also down in the action and responding to emergencies.

Together, all these elements give us a brand that feels recognisably St John Ambulance while being more confident, contemporary and flexible.

One brand. Greater impact

Our strengthened brand, visual system and tone of voice has been designed to work across the whole organisation: from fundraising and youth programmes to community engagement and education, through workplace first aid and mental health training to the urgency and reality of life-saving critical care. It works across every touchpoint too, from smartphones and social media to training centres, posters and events.

It’s about giving St John Ambulance a clearer representation of who we are, what we stand for and the difference we can make together.

Shona Dunn, Chief Executive of St John Ambulance explains:

“It’s great to see this important brand refresh coming to life alongside our 2026-28 Organisational Strategy.

At the heart of that Strategy is our commitment to build active, confident communities equipped and ready to deliver life-saving first aid. And to achieve that, we need to engage and inspire as many people as possible to join and support us.

Our brand is a vital asset in making that happen. It’s a powerful tool to articulate our purpose, energise our movement and make first aid a universal skill”.

For almost 150 years, St John Ambulance has been at the heart of community first aid in England. Now is the time to ensure our brand can help us to grow the power of first aid, together.

Every person. Every place. Every time.

Find out how you can get involved in Save a Life September and get the power of first aid in your hands.