Friends of BGWMC
Friends of Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club (BGWMC) formed under extraordinary pressure—when one of London’s most storied LGBTQ+ community spaces faced the very real risk of being sold off. With barely a week to respond, the group needed to move quickly from urgent organising to public-facing action: rallying supporters, communicating clearly, and launching a credible fundraising campaign at speed.
We partnered with Friends of BGWMC to create a campaign identity that could carry that urgency without losing what mattered most—the community’s history, energy, and sense of belonging.
Project Team
Branding: Georgey Lee
The Challenge
BGWMC isn’t just a building. It’s cultural infrastructure: a place where generations of queer community have gathered, celebrated, organised, and found safety. When a space like that is at risk, time is the first constraint—and trust is the second.
Friends of BGWMC needed to build recognition quickly, look organised and credible to supporters beyond their immediate network, and communicate clearly while information and decisions were moving in real time. Just as importantly, they needed a visual banner the community could rally behind—without flattening the nuance and history of the space.
What We Did
We designed a campaign visual identity that was rooted in the energy of the first community rally—capturing something that felt both unique and familiar.
Our role was to help translate the strength of the organising into a public-facing system that made it easier for people to understand the campaign, trust it, and share it. We created a clear, distinctive identity that could scale across digital and physical touchpoints, and set design direction that balanced urgency with care—helping the campaign feel credible without feeling corporate. We also worked in a highly collaborative, high-responsiveness way, supporting a volunteer team under intense pressure as the campaign evolved day-by-day.
As organiser Nick Keegan put it, the collaborative process mattered: the team relied on us for guidance, and we stayed flexible and attentive as the campaign evolved day-by-day.
Impact
When community spaces are under threat, credibility becomes a form of care. The identity helped Friends of BGWMC show up with clarity and confidence—and that, in turn, helped more people step in.
In people terms, the campaign created a visible, shareable focal point that made it easier for supporters to recognise what was at stake and take action. It helped people feel part of something collective—turning worry into practical momentum.
For the organisation, the refreshed communications helped the campaign feel “organised and credible”, which supported wider trust and participation—online and beyond London. The campaign went on to raise £19,598+ from 501 supporters. It also helped spark broader conversations about the preservation of queer cultural spaces, with the group invited to speak in Parliament and at national conferences.
