The goals established for this project were to create a memorable name for the organization; create a logo that balance caring, vulnerability, family and individuals; and create a brochure, website and branding guide.
The name
The original name was Virginia Emergency Families for Children. While the name is an accurate technical description, it was too long and generic to feel like an actual name. Not to mention the word ’emergency’ was alarming to both volunteers and clients of the service. That was a double whammy. Word has it that many children that were served by the program didn’t even know that the program had a name. On one hand, it’s nice to have some level of invisibility so that the family that is helping the child can be appreciated fully, but on the other hand, there are a lot of alumni of the program that may be inclined to pay back some of the support after reaching a stable place in their life. A weak name makes it hard to find the organization.
Though we didn’t work with the Board directly, we had a wonderful partner in Christina Delzingaro for this project. She had a full working knowledge of VEFC and was able to narrow down the decisions that the Board would have to make, relay the Board’s intentions to us, and then communicate our intentions to the Board.
In our first meeting together, we worked the blackboard in our Think Room. After a short time we developed dozens of name possibilities and then quickly homed in on one or two strong options. We also laid out the preliminary form and feeling of the logo to come.
Following the Kickoff Meeting, we discussed examples of website that had a similar feeling to that which the Board and Christina preferred. There were lots of things that didn’t fit of course, but in our conversations, we were able to determine the most attractive fit of the examples discussed and found creative ways to keep the cost of the overall project down.
Following the naming process, we moved on to the brochure, website and branding guide. More on that later…
