Since opening almost two years ago, SZ has donated proceeds of our art sales to Art with Heart, a non-profit organization in Seattle that uses creativity and art to support the emotional well-being of children affected by trauma and hardship. During the Art with Heart Founder's Celebration last February, Steffanie Lorig, the Founder of Art with Heart, handed over the reins to Heidi Durham to lead their growing team -- and now Art with Heart is going through a brand refreshment!
After over twenty years of helping children overcome trauma through creative expression, Art with Heart is redesigning the brand with a new visual look and online platform. This brand redesign represents the evolution that comes with new technology and the desire to impact an evolving, global audience. One of Heidi's favorite things about the new brand expression is the incorporation of watercolors and highlighting the children's art with the brand name, as you can see in the image at the top of the post.
To aid to even more children, Art with Heart will be providing training models and educational tools on their website based on the curricula they have personally developed over the years. Through a new website design and online resources, their goal is to reach practitioners who work with children all over the world. They currently have several designers working pro-bono to help the new brand image come to life, and Art with Heart is hoping to launch the new website and beta version of their online learning community in late December.
I had the opportunity to chat with Heidi Durham, CEO of Art with Heart, and ask her questions about the brand redesign. Read on for more details about Art with Heart's identity as they evolve and grow.
Julia Hess: What is the aim of the redesign for Art with Heart? What inspired it? Who was the designer?
Heidi Durham: As Art with Heart entered its 21st year as an organization, it was time to evolve our identity to match that vision for impact and our bold new vision. For 20 years, we have been offering creative expression programs led by our internal team for kids facing trauma or adversity. These programs offered in depth experiences for kids to build resilience and begin to heal after painful experiences.
Recently, we shifted to a training model through which we use our turnkey companion curricula to train practitioners at organizations already working with kids, like The Moyer Foundation, Seattle Public Schools, and more, so that they can use Art with Heart resources to support the kids they are already serving. This shift has increased our reach and impact significantly.
As we look ahead, we are planning to build an online learning platform in 2018 for adults working with kids, so they can access our curricula online in a dynamic and useful way, and have the tools they need to lead programs wherever they are in the world. We have an aspiration to provide practitioners around the world with intervention tools that work, in their own language and on their own time.
The story logo, emphasizing each part of the name with a different color.
The new visual identity, like art, invites you in to see things in a new way. It is round, which conveys momentum, progress, and growth. The space in the middle represents the possibility we wish to instill in all the kids we reach. The letters that make up our name fit together in a playful synergistic way that conveys the power in partnership, to show that everyone matters to the change we wish to make in the world.
Bobby Biskupiak, Seattle designer, was the creative leader behind the new brand expression and did this work pro-bono for Art with Heart.
JH: How do you feel the new logo represents the evolution of the organization? Is your target audience changing? How are you responding to the needs of your new audience?
HD: As Art with Heart moves into the future, we’ll support practitioners and the kids they serve by building on our momentum of 20 years of service in and around the Puget Sound region. Our new logo is the manifestation of many communities coming together to broaden our impact and spread the healing power of creative expression.
The new standalone logo.
As our audience grows far beyond the Pacific Northwest, we know that it's crucial to ensure that youth-serving adults have all the tools at their disposal to create powerful programs for kids facing trauma or adversity.
JH: How will the new website design better serve your organization's mission statement? In what ways will your website play a major role as your organization evolves?
HD: By creating an ecosystem of inspiration for adults, our new website and online learning platform will be a place of holistic learning and personal growth for practitioners, no matter where they are in the world. By bringing our training and curricula online, we're making our work accessible for everyone. As individuals feel the healing power of creative expression, they'll be able to bring their knowledge and skills to the kids they serve.
As Art with Heart grows, we want to be sure that our resources are accessible to people around the globe. We know that the healing power of creative expression can help all kids, but we can only reach them by harnessing the power of technology to broaden access.
JH: Anything else you'd like to share about the new updates to the brand/organization/website?
HD: Art works. Trauma is stored in the visual part of the brain, not the narrative part, so making art of any kind is essential for kids to express what is inexpressible verbally. Art with Heart has been working for over 20 years to share this healing power, proving our resources work, and we've broadened access to kids around the country. Partnerships and community is the way all ideas become big ideas.
As we look ahead the next five years, our ability to serve millions of kids facing trauma or adversity will increase through the engagement of anyone reading this article. We are all necessary for change to occur. Please reach out if you have ideas for getting our resources in the hands of people who need them, or would like to offer a donation to fuel our work. You can contact us via email at heidi@artwithheart.org.
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Congratulations to Art with Heart on the exciting brand refreshment! See their new look on their website, and stay tuned for Art with Heart's new educational tools coming in late December and throughout 2018.
Visit their website for more information on Art with Heart.
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Written by Julia Hess.