Grassroots Org Grows into Large Corporate Entity
The stewarding of a clean, bright, & earnest brand.
I have had an amazing 5 years of using many facets of talent toward this organization with a mission I truly believe in. I chose to leave independent consulting to try my hand at teaching, and then left a 20+ year independent designer career to settle here at this organization. It has been quite a journey. My first 2 years were spent as a part-time worker, which helped me learn how to focus my talent for managing a few different project clients to one client (who has a house of brands). I also learned how to corporate. I’m not great at it, but I’m better than I thought I would be.
When I started in 2014, the organization was called AIDS Resource Center Ohio, and had many volunteer groups running each program very differently. In 2016, the organization, in efforts to widen our services to more families and beyond those living with HIV/AIDS, ARC Ohio became Equitas Health, thanks to the strategic marketing efforts of Cement and Origo. I am proud to have been a key person grow and fine-tune the original design with balance, and a friendly clarity I believe is signature to good design.
Under the guidance of Joel Diaz, I worked with 3 other part time workers to build a marketing department from the ground up! Today, I am the last of that original team to leave, and it sure is bittersweet. I am proud of what we have built, and look forward to viewing Equitas Health’s future growth and legacy from afar.
How does one pare down 5 years to a page or three of visuals and summaries? It’s not easy!
their mission is to be the gateway to good health for those at risk of or affected by HIV, for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer/questioning (LGBTQ) community, and for those seeking a welcoming healthcare home.
approach: I focused primarily on expanding the clean, friendly, and inviting aesthetic of Equitas Health into both the experience of visiting an office or their website by incorporating custom photography with an open and easy-to-follow page design. Our main objective has been to create a welcoming feeling while offering patients of all backgrounds easy access to much-needed community services. While the desire for the main brand was to generate a visual consistency and corporate clarity, there were many opportunities with the many sub brands to flex my creative muscles. For the bulk of my time, I was in the rare position of using all of my artistic, graphic design, strategic branding, environmental design, web development, and production talents for good.
design: A clean style with a broken grid, resulting in a natural viewing experience for users.
