Visual Refresh Invigorates Volunteers and Donors

Challenge:

Volunteers, donors and community members appreciated the services offered by our customer, a regional nonprofit, but the agency’s visual identity had become stodgy and the nonprofit had slowly lost the community awareness it had once held. As a provider of food and fresh produce to needy area residents, the organization needed a visual “refresh” to invigorate volunteers and donors—and that transformation needed to happen before the nonprofit’s fall board meeting and its annual fundraiser, scheduled one month apart.

Solution:

We’d worked on other projects for this nonprofit, so we had a solid understanding of the services they provided and proposed a total rebranding effort with all-new signage for their corporate offices as well as the distribution center, including a sweeping upgrade to all wayfinding signage inside and outside the buildings. We worked with the customer and their various stakeholders to help guide the vision for the organization’s new logo and how it would be used. Our graphics professionals created the logo, then presented material samples and mockups of how it would look as signage throughout the agency’s buildings.

Our customer had purchased a vintage “delivery” truck that it planned to use at community events. We designed and printed colorful vinyl wraps for the truck based on the concept of a vintage wooden fruit crate. The distribution center received a visual upgrade with our production of adhesive canvas wall graphics representing the food bank’s various constituencies. Wall-mounted PVC prints highlighted the buildings newly built stage. In addition, we produced hundreds of t-shirts and hats, which the agency sold to raise funds.

Results:

Volunteers and community members are enthusiastic about the refreshed distribution center—a workplace where volunteers help feed more than 250,000 people a month. The new graphics highlight the work done by the organization and provide recognition and affirmation of the great work done by agency volunteers. Donations doubled for the annual fundraiser, which came immediately on the heels of the rebranding. The agency expected 400 attendees—but the final count topped 650!