Previously, the Americares logo created some challenges for international offices and partners with its strong emphasis on the word America and prominent use of red and blue. The logo needed to be reworked so that it represented the identity of all Americares staff and volunteers both in the United States and around the world. This was achieved by shifting the color palette to one that could be easily reproduced with basic materials in the field (primary colors) and that was “elemental” to the color family. The name was also shifted to all lowercase to de-emphasize the word America in the logo. The typeface was changed to Block Berthold and modified so that the “a” and “c” became custom letters that still subtly drew the eye. This font was chosen in large part for its almost handwritten, imperfect feel -- again denoting the emphasis on people and humanity.

The expansive nature of Americares work necessitated a large number of different types of applications for the new branding, requiring that it be extremely flexible while still preserving a strong identity that would speak to both to the older Americares audience as well as a new, younger, more digital demographic. These applications included a new website design, emergency supply/medicine packaging, building signage, health worker apparel, trade show booths and more.

The new branding had a significant impact cross platform for the organization in terms of overall engagement and online giving revenue. In 2016, after the new site launch, there was a 39% revenue increase, a 43% donor increase, a 35% increase in conversion rate and a 34% increase in online revenue on #GivingTuesday. In an email campaign designed to test the new branding, there was an 18% increase in click-throughs, a 42% increase in gifts, a 97% increase in average gift amount and a 16% decrease in unsubscribes. At their annual fundraising event which prominently featured the new branding there was a 48% increase in the in-room fundraising participation and a 12% increase in total amount raised.

Prior to designing the visual elements, we developed a new brand positioning that better reflected the organization’s acute focus on health and growing programmatic work. It was critical this positioning embody their emergency response work, global leadership with respect to medicine and medical supply distribution and more sophisticated projects. The new positioning -- “health first” --- reflected that health is foundational and critical for a child to attend school, parents to provide and communities to thrive. The new branding had to resonate with the existing donor community, primarily older donors in the tri-state area and those nationally engaged via direct mail. It also needed to appeal to new, younger donors. This made the website redesign a critical extension of the rebrand -- to engage this population and inspire an increase in online donations. Additional critical target audiences included global partner organizations and local communities Americares serves, volunteers and staff.

The goal of the project was to successfully undertake the first re-brand of Americares since its inception, almost 40 years ago. The rebrand had to reflect the organization’s evolution since its founding and its aspirations for future growth without alienating its existing donor base, a critical financial support. The re-brand needed to have global appeal so that it would be embraced in the countries around the world where Americares has its offices as well as where they provide emergency support. Equally as important, the new branding needed to be approved by the board, staff and the family of the original founder to ensure that it was reflective of the internal identity and culture of the organization.