Brian Thomson of BLTdesign teamed with brand strategist Dee Papit of Lone Wolf Marketing to rebrand Greater Richmond ARC, a nonprofit for individuals with disabilities. The name “ARC,” once an acronym for “Association for Retarded Citizens,” was outdated and offensive. Though National ARC had dropped the acronym years earlier, Richmond’s community found the name lacking meaning. Interviews confirmed strong feelings, leading to a recommendation to rename the organization. Richmond ARC embraced and acknowledged this too. After board approval of the findings of the brand study, Brian and Jay Sandusky worked with senior leadership including Doug Payne, to rename and fully rebrand the organization, introducing SOAR365 to clients, staff, families, and stakeholders.
Everyone wants to SOAR. To do more than they (or the world at large) imagine they can. Individuals with disabilities can soar, their families can soar, agencies can soar. And we as a community can do more too, when we become a part of this movement.
From our inception, we challenged the conventional thinking about people with disabilities. While others had a limited vision of what people with disabilities could do, we knew they could SOAR if put in the right circumstances. Now, more than 60 years later, we’re still looking for inventive, pragmatic and supportive ways to help this community achieve independence and reach their loftiest goals.
The SOAR365 letterforms are grounded, solid and substantial—communicating confidence and longevity. By including the 365 suffix, we also tell families and clients that our commitment never takes a day off. And because the numerals are expressed as an exponent, it makes our dedication seem exponentially large.
The SOAR365 symbol (Skylar) is comprised of seven simple, geometric shapes that converge to create a solid origami crane. The crane is a symbol of long-life, as Japanese folklore believes the crane to live for 1000 years. The crane is also a symbol of happiness, good luck and peace.
Our color palette is contemporary and trends away from the more traditional primary hues typical of the disabilities and child-care industry. It is a palette equally at home in the corporate boardroom, playground, clinic and workspace.
While Brian, Doug and Jay have worked as a team for years, each of us also brings a wealth of experience and success from earlier jobs. To give you a fuller sense of our capabilities and talent, we’ve highlighted work here that has been conceived by one of us, two of us together, or, in the case of SOAR365 and Fishburne Military School, by all three of us collaborating. In each case, we identify who among us worked on the effort.
