We Find the Way: Keep the Relationship in View as the Support Changes

Read the campaign story

The brothers remain rivals as the support around one of them changes. Guide Dogs’ March 2023 We Find the Way campaign follows two brothers growing up, one experiencing sight loss. The Gate’s film brings earlier skills support and a later guide-dog partnership into that continuing relationship. The charity’s annual report confirms the campaign’s launch and broader-service aim. Direction was by Arni Thor Jonsson through Dark Energy Films, with Medialab handling media.

Editorial interpretation: a list can explain that an organization offers more than its best-known service, but it rarely explains why those services belong together. A relationship unfolding over time supplies a connective thread. The audience can follow what a person wants to keep doing while the appropriate support changes. The person does not have to become a new character each time a service appears. Their preferences, humour and relationships can remain the story’s centre, with the organization contributing to a life that has purposes beyond receiving help.

The contemporary account reports consultation with people with sight loss and specialists; this is not an independent accessibility audit of the finished work. The narrative does not establish that everyone follows the same service pathway or receives a particular outcome. No identifiable participant’s medical history is reproduced here. The original campaign page could not be retrieved, so this study relies on the opened annual report and trade account, not its search excerpt. No film viewing, treatment advice, assistance-dog instruction or legacy-giving recommendation is claimed.

Choose the continuing aim before the service sequence

For a fictional adult community music centre, imagine two friends who want to keep making music together as their schedules change. Lessons, rehearsal access and remote feedback might each have a different role. Begin with the friends’ shared project rather than the centre’s departmental structure. This gives the audience a reason to understand why the offers appear together. It also prevents the fictional person from becoming a convenient demonstration unit who changes direction whenever the organization has another service to mention.

Let each transition answer a different practical question

In the invented story, an introductory session could help the friends begin, while rehearsal access lets them continue independently. Do not imply that every member must buy the same sequence or that the most expensive offer is the inevitable destination. Each transition needs a stated circumstance and an appropriate choice. If a service contributes nothing new to the shared project, remove it from the story rather than inserting a brief appearance merely to satisfy an internal list of products to feature.

Keep the character larger than the organization’s role

The fictional friends can disagree about a song, enjoy a rehearsal or decide to pause. Those moments make their purpose visible without making the centre the author of every outcome. Ask whether the story would still contain recognizable people if its service names disappeared. Then restore the specific contributions so the organization’s role remains understandable. The balance matters: removing all personality makes the story a catalogue, while removing the service detail makes it a warm scene that tells viewers little about the available help.

A small test for another brief

Proposed adaptation: write a six-panel original story about the fictional adult music partners, using three stipulated service options and an explicit choice at each transition. Compare it with a plain service list containing the same information. Ask consenting adults to explain what the friends want, what each option contributes and which parts are choices rather than required stages. Use no real disability history or service-user testimony. The exercise examines whether continuity makes a broader offer understandable without inventing a universal customer journey.

Record service understanding, mistaken assumptions about mandatory steps and whether viewers can describe the people beyond their use of the centre. Warmth or recall alone does not establish service suitability, actual participation or the historical campaign’s effect.

Revise if the story implies a guaranteed progression, makes the organization responsible for every achievement or uses a person only to introduce products. A useful narrative should preserve agency while clarifying what support can contribute.

• Name the relationship and continuing purpose.
• Give each service a distinct contribution.
• Keep optional transitions visibly optional.