Ellenville Regional Hospital
BRAND IDENTITY | VISUAL DESIGN SYSTEM | WEBSITE
Raising Awareness by Design
Helping a hospital reconnect with its community
Ellenville Regional Hospital (ERH) is a small rural hospital with an outstanding reputation. For years, ERH has proudly provided exceptional health and wellness services for the people who live, work and visit southern Ulster County, New York.
Despite its size and service area, it's received regional and national recognition for its innovative care programs and initiatives - such as its revolutionary work on the opioid crisis.
This wasn't always the case. Poor management in the early 2000s left ERH on the brink of bankruptcy and in low regard with the local communities - to the point where potential patients were seeking other healthcare options in an area with few alternatives.
Designing a new direction
A new CEO came on board, transforming the hospital's business operations with a sustainable model focused on quality. ERH now needed patients and referrers to recognize this dramatic turnaround and be convinced of its restored reputation.
In 2013, we were appointed to develop a new website. However, early in the discovery phase, it was clear that a new brand identity design was necessary to fully realize ERH's restored position as a leader in specialty care services.
Finding the right line – representing the brand
The rationale for a new brand identity design was simple. For ERH's message to be truly effective, it needed to be present at every point of contact – starting at the website, through internal and external communications and into the physical building.
ERH's new brand identity was built around its vision of delivering innovative care and vital services with compassion and respect. It would showcase its commitment to supporting patients, their families, friends, and local communities with the theme "Healthcare Close to Home."
Understanding ERH's values was essential, as this would inform every aspect of our design work.
In the discovery phase, we talked to a cross-section of leadership and staff about how they felt working at the hospital. These conversations revealed the staff's deep commitment and feeling for what they did. Using their own words, we could illustrate what was truly important to the people who worked at ERH.
This visual representation helped us to distill the genuine values of the staff into a simple, powerful statement that would resonate through all of ERH's internal and external communications:
Innovating. Collaborating. Providing Award-winning Care.
A new logo for a renewed vision
As the main feature of the new visual design, our logo would visually signal ERH's transformation at every point of contact.
The hospital was keen to keep the concept of its old logo, so our new design acknowledged the equity in the original. But now, the sun over the mountains and valley symbolizes hope rising over the landscape elements that represent the area ERH serves.
We also made the hospital's name more prominent to balance the dynamic graphic. Underlining this with ERH's statement of intent, we clearly announce ERH's purpose to serve its community as a trusted healthcare provider that's "close to home" for the people of Ellenville.
The heart of the operation – a new website
We designed ERH's new website with a clear focus on the benefits ERH provides in regard to its professionalism, scope of services, location and accessibility. The new site needed to present a lot of information for users, so a clean layout and simple navigation were critical elements in our design.
Additionally, the site's look and voice had to communicate and reassure its communities that ERH is the best choice for healthcare close to home. The new site confirmed ERH as welcoming, compassionate, and trusted to provide excellent, skilled, specialist care.
Meeting the brief
This project was hugely rewarding, and we were delighted to further ERH's turnaround. With the leadership's and key staff's cooperation, we delivered a strong brand and visual design system that encapsulated the warmth, dedication and motivation of an innovative local care provider.
We always hope the pride and effort we put into a brand or design project develops into a great client relationship. With Ellenville Regional Hospital, we were happy to continue supporting their efforts as their agency, creating all ERH marketing and communications for several years after the initial brand project.
“Prior to engaging Ditto! Design!, our website was antiquated and did not reflect the current image of our hospital and how it had changed over the past few years. Now, our website accurately reflects the quality, compassionate and innovative care that had become part of our “brand," without us ever before having labeled it as such!”
Debbie Briggs
Vice President
Ellenville Regional Hospital
Change is fuel for growth and possibility.
SETH GODIN