Thousands of Girlguides and volunteers have been involved in the development of a new brand for the 102-year-old Girlguiding charity.

A speech-bubble shaped logo and the loss of 'UK' from the charity's name are the results of an 18-month consultation process involving volunteers who were given training in research; focus groups with hundreds of members, and a questionnaire that received 5,000 responses.

'UK' was removed from the charity's working name in order to "best reflect every single geographic area that makes up our charity", Girlguiding advise, stating that it is still "very much a UK-wide organisation". The charity also operates internationally in centres run by the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts in Mexico, Switzerland and India.

The strapline 'Girls in the lead' has also been dropped, changing to 'We discover, we grow'.

The charity hopes that the new logo will help to make the charity's mission of giving girls a voice clearer. Fundraising and marketing manager Donna Holland, who led the project, said:

"The speech-bubble shape came about because they wanted the visual identity of Girlguiding to say loud and clear that girls in guiding have a voice. Research has shown that not everyone knows Girlguiding – or Brownies or Rainbows -  is a charity or that its mission is to give girls their own space in which to grow and explore. These elements informed all of the work we did and at each stage we tested it with the girls and the volunteers to ensure it was authentic to them.”

As well as the Girlguiding rebrand, its sections too, from Rainbows to Trefoil Guild, have been given updated logos to reflect their connection to Girlguiding.

Girlguiding has 538,247 members aged between five and 25 years old taking part in regular activities facilitated by 100,000 volunteers.