rebrand
JoyRx | Children's Cancer Association
OVERVIEW
Children's Cancer Association has a nearly 30-year history of bringing joy to children undergoing extended hospital treatments in Portland, Oregon through their free-of-charge programming. As they expended their reach across the country, the clientele expanded as well, working with teens and families of all diagnoses. The organization decided to rebrand to JoyRx to emphasize their belief that joy is a powerful tool in the face of grief.
CHALLENGE
I joined the organization at the beginning of 2022 and noticed the rebrand to JoyRx back in 2020 didn't go according to plan: the agency that provided the updated logo did not provide a strategy to transition to the new identity. The organization was using both the Children's Cancer Association AND JoyRx, which was confusing to both new and long-time supporters. My first task was to come up with a strategy that worked for the organization while expanding how the new brand of JoyRx should show up.
brand needs
To start, there were some key elements that needed to be addressed to course-correct the rebrand that was already in progress. We took these elements back to the agency that originally provided the logo to help close the gap on what we needed to relaunch the rebrand.
strategy
There was a desire to
keep the original identity in some cases, so formulating a strategy
on when to use which logo was necessary.
logo
A new logo was needed to help ease the transition to the new identity for those that always knew them as "Children's Cancer Association."
colors
Colors exude emotion and personality. It was important to expand the palette to help properly express the joy we hope to bring to kids.
graphic style
Brand identity is felt in every expression, so it was important to also have a strong graphic style that can show up in all assets and collateral.
strategy
From logo misuse to rigid color rules, we needed to take a step back and create brand guidelines that helped the organization grow and flourish. We started with going back to the agency that created the logo back in 2020 to get their thoughts on how it was going. Ultimately, we all agreed there needed to be some proper guidelines put into place and needed to start back at the beginning. We discussed everything from Board of Directors opinions on the rebrand to how we use certain colors. It was tricky but a great exercise to hear all the stakeholder knowledge and come up with something that worked for everyone. While these conversations covered all aspects of the brand (tone, photography, tagline, etc), below is how I mainly contributed to our improved identity:
logo
At a nonprofit, any major decision needs to be approved by the Board of Directors. When asking if we could fully commit to JoyRx as the brand, many were skeptical.
After several delicate and thoughtful conversations, we compromised on moving forward with JoyRx as the leading identity for all audiences. The legacy audience (loyal donors, hospital partners, community members who knew the brand as Children's Cancer Association) would be served a logo that included both identities, yet still led with JoyRx. As Senior Brand Designer, I was in charge of ensuring the right logo was used in all situations, which was complicated at times!
Primary logo distributed nationally and in all growth opportunities.
Logo used in "legacy" situations, like long-time PNW donors, internally, and for grant proposals.
JoyRx brand in action
