Outreach
Outreach
Shifting the primary focus of the brand and website from their donor base to the youth they serve.
Outreach in Central Indiana is an organization leading the charge in serving and meeting the unique needs of youth facing homelessness.
Outreach began partnering with HELLO THIS IS JEFF to help them solve an identity crisis that had been brewing for several years.
We started with the story their brand was telling.
Outreach’s former tagline, “Hope for Homeless Youth,” had been problematic for years as it reinforced a negative stereotype people generally have about “homeless individuals” despite its allusion to hope. The new tagline, “End Youth Homelessness” positions “homelessness” as the villain and “youth” as the hero in the story.
Additionally, we pivoted from talking to donors about the youth they were helping to talking directly to the youth and young adults needing assistance:
Homelessness doesn’t have to define you. You can move beyond this.
Living unsheltered with your child? Nowhere left to go? Kicked out of your parents’ house? We can help you.
You’re wanted here.
Receive more than just basic services.
This shift in no way lessened the impact Outreach had with their supporters, but rather aided to enhance their understanding of the ministry work Outreach was doing in the communities in which they served. Their mission became clearer and buy-in from donors, volunteers, and partners became easier to achieve.
Brand Design
Outreach’s former logo featured an overweighted red cross as the “T” in the word, clearly identifying their Christian roots and beliefs to their audience, along with establishing themselves as a “mission” organization. However, the design was overly simple and not well-executed, rendering the brand both generic and unpolished. The colors were muddy and indistinct (were the letters gray, black, dark blue?). The cross was, perhaps, a little too in your face, which led to some youth and supporters wondering if they would provide services to LGBTQ+ youth who make up a significant percentage of the homeless youth population (and yes, they do, without judgment or proselytizing).
The new brandmark introduces a new type of cross… the intersection of pathways and city streets that youth facing homelessness are forced to navigate. The pathways also lead in different directions (up, left, right) to illustrate the choice that Outreach youth have in choosing between the options laid before them to discover their own way out of homelessness.
The new logo became a natural evolution of the old, moving the brand forward in a bold, confident new direction.
Business Set
Brand Identity Aesthetic
The youth themselves are now cast as the heroes in the new brand identity applications, appearing separated from the image backgrounds (read, their circumstances) and allowed to shine for the amazing individuals they are. A supporting palette of bright colors helps to bring inclusivity and personalization. The cross design also lends itself to a variety of interesting patterns to represent the complex problems and life situations Outreach helps these youth solve for themselves.
Website Design
Outreach’s website was in bad shape, and truly the driving factor into them partnering with me in the first place. Outreach was stuck with a poorly designed Wix site that they couldn’t easily manage, and on top of that, they were being bled dry by an agency who was charging them monthly maintenance fees to do basically nothing.
The old site didn’t tell any story at all, so the first and most important step was connecting them with a professional videographer team, Chitwood Media, to create a manifesto reel and a number of short documentary-style clips that helped showcase each of their primary service offerings.
HELLO THIS IS JEFF then redesigned the site in keeping with the new brand aesthetic which resulted in a custom build on Squarespace. We leveraged various native features like background video headers and customizable section dividers to feature the new reels and help tell their amazing story in the most impactful of ways. We kept the youth as the primary audience for the homepage and Services section of the site, while the remainder of the site explained the type of information pertinent to supporters.
Old Homepage
New Homepage
The result? Outreach is now well-positioned as a clear leader and frontrunner in the youth homelessness space in central Indiana.
“I reached out to Jeff because I knew that my project presented a unique challenge. Outreach had an established brand identity that was due for an update, but we didn’t want to do a complete rebranding. Whatever design elements we created needed to mesh with the historical brand that had been effective for 25 years.
Jeff listened to our needs and asked the right questions. He took time to visit our sites and get to know our staff, volunteers, and clients so that he could more effectively communicate who we are. Whenever I work with Jeff, I am reminded of how rare it is to have someone who is purposeful and intentional about all of the details. Every aspect of our brand identity works together to tell a story of who we are and the impact that we are making.
This process with Jeff equipped and empowered our staff to better tell the story of Outreach to prospective supporters and clients.”
