St. Joseph's Hospice - Rebuilding the Brand Language for a Community-Facing Healthcare Organization
“Rebuilt the visible language of a hospice from the inside - brand system, voice, editorial standards and campaign creative - so the organization's public face finally matched the quality of care it was actually delivering.”
The hospice's clinical work was world-class, but the outward communications had drifted into fragmented territory: inconsistent visual expression, program materials that read like separate organizations, and a tone that swung between clinical and sentimental depending on who was writing that week. Donors, referring physicians, grieving families and volunteers all met the brand at different moments and formed different impressions of what it stood for.
- 01Audited the full communications surface - print, web, program collateral, signage, donor materials, internal documents - to see where the drift was actually happening
- 02Set a brand language grounded in the two things the organization genuinely does well: unhurried human care and clear community education about a subject most people avoid
- 03Built a typography, colour, image and iconography system that could hold across clinical, fundraising and community-facing contexts without needing a different look each time
- 04Wrote editorial standards and messaging frameworks - how to talk about death, dying, grief, hope, hospice care - that clinicians, fundraisers and volunteers could all use without contradicting each other
- 05Directed photography that felt like the actual hallways, gardens and family rooms of the hospice rather than stock imagery of any healthcare setting
- 06Partnered with program leads and executive leadership to roll the system out through everyday tools - templates, one-pagers, program brochures, event materials - not just a launch moment
- A consistent brand expression across program, fundraising, executive and community-facing materials for the first time in years
- Editorial standards clinicians and communicators could both use without a translator in the middle
- Sharper donor and volunteer materials that made the case for hospice care without leaning on grief as leverage
- A creative operating system the internal team continued to extend after my direct engagement wrapped
Concept, art direction & execution - Shawn Van Daele for St. Joseph's Hospice, London, 2019 - 2022.
