FLOURISH DENTAL BRANDING
REBRANDING, VISUAL DESIGN
ROLE: branding, illustration
TOOLS: indesign, illustrator, photoshop, acrobat
COLLATERAL: logo, franchise poster, environmental design, customer promo kit, business card, annual report
WHAT?
Flourish Dental is an academic rebranding project for Sunrise Village Dental Centre, which is a family-owned dentistry in the Hastings Sunrise region in Burnaby, B.C. This project aims to rebrand the dentistry and re-establish it within the market space in the Hastings Sunrise area, with considerations for audience, geographic location and historical context.
WHY?
Sunrise Village Dental is an excellent dentistry, however this rebrand evaluates how the dentistry can better cater to its clients in the area and emphasize its USP in its particular market space. This rebrand aims to further Sunrise Village Dental's reach, helping it become the go-to dentistry for families and teens not only locally, but also through all of Burnaby as well.
Design Brief + Research + Branding Story - Please view below the final work images for the creative process work to see more of the research and brainstorming that informed my design decisions.
Brand Logo Specs + Corporate Colours + Typography - A rounded, friendly, and casual sans serif was chosen for the typeface to make the dentist feel modern and comfortable. The tooth illustration is simple and endearing. A chalk-like stroke was added to the tooth's outlines to give it a more hand-made feeling, and to keep it from being being too stiff and formal. Preliminary logo designs were adjusted until feedback for the tooth included "trust-worthy, friendly, happy, endearing, clean".
Environmental Design: office exterior, a-frame signage, interior splash wall - To make the office comfortable, rounded, cozy, and fun sofas in bright colours would be in the office lobby. They would be next to some of the potted plants inside, visible through the large glass windows. The lobby would give a sense of casual comfort, so the dentist is not as intimidating or scary, particularly to younger patients. The fun furniture and plants would also be "instagrammable", well-designed and pleasing to wait by.
Promo Kit - This kit would be given to first-time clients after they finish their appointment. It includes a zippered leaf-shaped pouch (Flourish Dental branding on the fabric tag inside the pouch), a USB stick, a lip balm in either cucumber mint or unflavoured (for clients who may be sensitive to smell), and a business card. The pouch is unbranded on the outside so that clients are more likely to use it, and the lip balm will help chapped lips after an appointment. The USB is very handy and can be used by either the students or the parents, and the business card would likely be given to the parents. The business card also features a mirror decal on it shaped like a tooth, which increases the possibility that clients will keep it in their wallets to use as an impromptu mirror. Clients will be more likely to keep and remember the card for its dual function.
Franchise Poster - This poster is to invite franchisees to work with Flourish Dental, and features the clean, professional branding.
Annual Report - As noted above, the annual report's theme is to help its clients grow healthy roots for a brighter future ahead. It features details on programs such as the Flourish With You programs and grants which relate to this theme. Transparent leaves and small coloured bars are used as design elements throughout the report. The leaf motif is continued with the images of the team and of the chair, which all feature foliage in the background of the photos. The images are also friendly, not overly posed, and have more of a casual look, unlike the usual headshot of dentists against a white background in their scrubs. The finances section does not use any red colours for highlights, to not give viewers the idea that the dental centre is "in the red".
PROJECT CREATIVE PROCESS
RESEARCH
To understand the market position of Sunrise Valley Dental Centre, I began with contextual research into the geographical location, historical context, and business typology of the dentistry field.
Through my own familiarity with the area, I had an understanding of the shops, mood, and area. I looked towards Statistics Canada to look up further details about the demographic in the Hastings Sunrise area to understand population, languages spoken, and the households of those who live in the area. I also researched the building, L'Atélier, which the Sunrise Valley Dental Centre has their shop at.
Research into Sunrise Village's USP and specific services through their site, as well as those of competitors in the area was also done.
Photographer Rebecca Blissett compiled a collection of photographs of this area, as well as of the Forst's shop. Many of the shops still have the same 1940's architectural detail around their shops.
View her photographs here: (https://www.timescolonist.com/2.2551/2.3027/hastings-sunrise-then-and-now-1.577209)
BRAINSTORMING + CONCEPT
Once the research was complete, I compiled some research conclusions and established other branding details such as the mission statement, vision statement, brand story, and USP. The market position of teens to young adults is not a space that other competitors are targeting, and allow Sunrise to continue the patient's care long term.
A vision board was created to begin gathering reference for the look and feel of the dentistry, and to direct the visuals.
I created personas using the research data previously compiled and detailed the pain points and characteristics of 3 different types of clients that the dentistry would have.
Since I knew I would be creating a promo kit for the customers as part of the final collateral, I also drew a customer journey touchpoint map, where I decided at what point of the customer's experience they would receive this promo kit.
Visual Research Board - This moodboard helped establish the look and feel of the dentistry that I wanted to have. It is in keeping with the clean blues and teals that are characteristic of this market's imagery, however with some fun pops of yellow. After receiving some feedback, I remembered the yellow may be reminiscent of yellow teeth and scrapped this colour from the palette.
Personas - These personas were created after the research on demographics and the Hastings-Sunrise region was completed. It outlines 3 separate personas, one of a 15-year old teen, an older 18-year old, and a mother. While the mother is not the direct client who is receiving the treatment, she is the one who deals with the business and makes the decisions. The other two teens are personas that represent the target teen clients.
Customer Journey Touchpoint Map - This map represents the customer's journey/interaction with the dentistry. Through examining this interaction, I determined that the best point in time to give the customer the promo kit would be after their appointment, as a take-away gift.
THUMBNAILS
While drawing logo thumbnails, I also began to consider changes in the company name. Although it refers directly to the Hastings Sunrise area, it is not particularly unique or memorable and seems rather generic. For stronger branding and a business name that reflects the character and attitude of the brand, I considered new names.
Since the dentistry’s aim is to help teens flourish and grow into healthy young adults, and to continue their care as long-term clients, the idea of the company flourishing with them would be a suitable business name. It also has the idea of helping teens grow into their best versions of themselves, allowing them to flourish in other areas of their lives by taking care of their health needs.
I also drew some thumbnails to consider what environmental design could be included in the collateral. There were ideas for signage, A-frames, and planters.
Logo Thumbnails + Naming Considerations
Environmental Design + Collateral Thumbnails
Annual Report + Franchise Poster Collateral
ROUGHS
After choosing the best thumbnails to work from, the roughs were created for the logos. I also considered typefaces that would be suitable for conveying the character of the dental centre. Since Flourish Dental's USP is creating comfort for its clients, I felt that a more casual, modern, friendly, and rounded sans-serif typeface would be best to complement the logo. These considerations were also key in developing the logo.
Some roughs were created for environmental signage to expand the company's branding into clients' experiences too. Since the client base is younger, the smiley face decal mirrors are social-media friendly, and are reminiscent of funny social media face filters. There are also general collateral roughs and further ideas.
Logo Roughs - After selecting some of the best thumbnails to expand upon, these logo roughs were created digitally in Illustrator.
Environmental Design Roughs - 4 separate designs for environmental branding that could be used for the dentistry were created from thumbnail sketches.
Collateral Roughs - Some considerations for collateral and promo kit/marketing items to include.
Annual Report + Franchise Poster Roughs
COMPREHENSIVES
After tracing the thorn illustration in Illustrator, I tested a large number of fonts against it and chose a font that looked great both in white and black, with a sort of elegance. I didn't want the typeface to be too playful, and still wanted it to reflect a certain darkness and look relatively serious. Several iterations of the logo were created.
As I knew I would be advertising and selling the brand on Instagram, I created a series of sample Instagram stories to see what I wanted the communication with customers to look like. I considered the language, use of typography, and type of photos I wanted to share.
I also made digital comps of the shirt graphic with a variety of images. The back graphic reads "media nox", Latin for "midnight", a reference which is also noted in the time that says 00:00. The graphic is essentially representative of a dream that happens at midnight.
Logo Comps - The most suitable typeface was chosen for the brand, and changes in angles to the tooth's smile and the oval behind it finished the logo. I also changed the stroke used on the tooth to a more friendly chalk stroke, for more of a friendly and animated look.
Environmental Design Comps - I received feedback for the a-sign, which informed me that the dirt of the plant pot in the tooth may look like a cavity. With this in mind, I changed the plant to a water plant, a pothos, which is able to grow in only water. The vase would be clear and removable from the tooth. The exterior of the office was also changed, focusing more on the plants than on people's teeth - this is more relaxing and slightly less confrontational - some people may feel shy seeing their reflection and become self-conscious.
Collateral/Promo Kit Comps
Franchise Poster
TAKEAWAY
With the extensive research and process to develop the branding story, I believe that this academic project repositioned the Dental Centre within its market space accurately. It sits in a niche that is currently unoccupied in this local area, and addresses common worries that many clients have with their services - comfort and expertise.
The development of the large range of collaterals and consideration for both the parents paying the bill and the young clients is what I believe makes this a successful rebranding.
The feedback for this project was very important, as it helped highlight many issues that I did not see myself; such as the potted plant in the a-frame sign being reminiscent of a cavity. If I were to adjust the branding, I would have made more exploratory roughs - some of the roughs were more heavily created digitally, which is not a poor strategy, but maybe isn't as creatively free as drawing on paper.