A NEW LOOK

By: Kelly Sweeney McShane, Executive Director

What goes into designing a logo? A LOT! As we learned from the talented team of volunteers from the Taproot Foundation, a logo visually represents what an organization does and how it does it. Community of Hope’s new logo is designed to reflect the energy, connectedness, and strengths of the people who are involved here, whether they be residents, patients, staff, volunteers, donors, or board members. We are about promoting strong families, creating hope, and creating connections between people.

I love this logo! Not only do I love purple (I didn’t pick the color, honest!), I love the vibrancy of the people and the clear connection between adults and children. Our tagline – “Supporting Families with Healthcare, Housing & Education” – tells what we do.

The team of volunteers, provided through a generous grant from the Taproot Foundation, was given the task of creating a new visual identity for Community of Hope. First, they did research by talking to clients, volunteers, staff, and board members. They wanted to find out how Community of Hope is viewed and see how well our old logo represented those images. The consensus was that our old logo did not accurately reflect the breadth of services that we provide and how and in what spirit we provide them. Some of the words used to describe us were: family, caring, commitment, respect, quality, and excellence.

Using those words as inspiration, the designers came up with four different options of logo designs, some of which were an update of our logo and others of which were totally different. We narrowed our options down to two for review and discussion by board and staff. Everyone agreed that this new look best reflects Community of Hope where we are today and where we are going in the future.

The new logo definitely captures our sense of forward motion – not standing still, growing. And growing we are, even in these tough economic times. As you can see in this issue, we have added a behavioral health component to complement our housing and health services.

We are also building our presence on the Internet – Community of Hope is now on Facebook! Please visit us there or at http://www.communityofhopedc.org/. If you haven’t already, let us know how to reach you by email, so we can keep you updated on our progress throughout 2009.

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