Hospice Kingston

case study

Hospice Kingston Brand and Campaign SubBrand Development

Challenge

Hospice Kingston provides palliative care, offering vital support to both patients and caregivers. They needed a logo that conveyed a sense of hope and upliftment, balancing the heavy nature of end-of-life care with messages of comfort and compassion. The logo and overall brand had to emphasize quality of life, warmth, and empathy, while maintaining a professional tone that would help patients and caregivers feel at ease when using their services.

Additionally, a campaign was created to raise awareness and funds for a new, dedicated palliative care facility, designed to expand Hospice Kingston’s capacity to deliver care and services. This campaign required a unique sub-brand, along with collateral materials, printed fundraising materials, and a series of digital ads.

Approach

Concept development focused on steering clear of imagery that could evoke feelings of finality or sadness. Given the sensitive nature of the subject, the emphasis had to be on positivity. The butterfly was chosen as the central symbol for the brand, representing hope, optimism, renewal, happiness, and freedom. To ensure the brand was graphically flexible, a simplified depiction of butterfly wings was created, with one wing breaking free from a box shape. This visual represented progression, with the outward wing symbolizing freedom from the limitations imposed by illness.

The original logo paired this graphic with a traditional serif font, which was later updated to a modern sans-serif style for a more contemporary feel.

For the Time Is Now campaign, the butterfly graphic was reimagined, circling around a custom wordmark created from the campaign name. This design reinforced the core themes of the primary brand, maintaining a strong connection to Hospice Kingston. An entire collateral package was developed for the campaign, heavily incorporating the new brand identity and an updated color palette. Fundraising materials, including pamphlets and a case-for-support leave-behind book, were designed to inform and inspire potential investors to support the initiative. Multiple digital media campaigns were also created and deployed, reaching out to various audiences such as patients, caregivers, volunteers, and supporters.

Thoughts

This was an expansive project that dealt with subject matters I myself had little experience with at the time; loss, grief, terminal illness, hopelessness. As I learned about what Hospice Kingston did, I tried to think of a creative solution that stayed as far away from the negative aspects of end-of-life care. Once the brand was developed and engaged with by health care providers and members of the public, the recurring feedback was that there was a sense of hope rather than a focus on the end. I didn’t realize just how profound an impact graphic design could have on a community, until I worked on this project.