BRANDING
When I joined Northwestern Health Sciences University, I was charged with bringing together a fractured brand look. The Marketing department was a newly formed group and we had the opportunity to capitalize on the emerging recognition that healthcare really is evolving. Our university had a reputation as one of the top schools for chiropractic, but the other programs we offer were not being highlighted like they needed to be. Two logos were in play, messaging was not consistent and our website was practically unusable. We already knew through months of research and interviews of key stakeholders that natural healthcare is emerging and patients want to be a partner in their care. The new logo and brand tells the story of person-centered healthcare and fulfilling our brand promise of teaching, learning, and serving to inspire healing. During my six years at NWHSU, I've been the brand champion, and continually nuanced and evolved our brand for both print and digital.
The Saint Mary’s University brand was stale, one-dimensional and fractured between our two schools when I took over. In order to breath life and energy into our brand and build stronger affinity, I expanded our toolbox with fonts, graphics, color palette, and capitalized on our Cardinal logo. To bring better brand awareness to our graduate school, and tie it into our undergraduate school, I did strategic and extended research that examined the hierarchy of our graduate schools and programs. I found that the complexity was turning away prospective students. To break down this complexity and make the schools and programs easily recognizable, and more engageable, I developed a brand language and system using colors, icons and graphic patterns. The system is being applied to both print and digital assets. This new brand system and language has allowed our admission team to easily talk about the schools and programs that are offered at Saint Mary’s and has resulted in increased applications and admitted students. The Saint Mary's brand is now a fresh, bold look that captures the attention of our students, faculty and staff.
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In 2012 the Minnesota Orchestra made the decision to rebrand. Orchestra Hall was getting a complete makeover and we took the opportunity to reboot the look of the orchestra. We worked in partnership with a local design agency doing research analysis, consultation, brainstorming, mood boards, collaboration and sweating the details. The result was a fresh, clean and vibrant new logo and graphic look for the Minnesota Orchestra. It reflected the dynamic energy and excellence of one of the top orchestras in the United States. The new brand was a blend of the contemporary new look of Orchestra Hall and the rich tradition of the orchestra. The refreshed brand saw immediate new audience engagement and a spike in attendance and subscriptions.