Odyssey House is a private not-for-profit organization established in 1989 to provide treatment and education to youth and families whose lives have been devastated by drugs, alcohol, and abuse.
Design Challenge:
With increased competition for funding within the treatment community, Odyssey House needed to communicate its unique offerings in a fresh and engaging way. An efficient and immediate way to bring needed attention to Odyssey House’s mission was to renew its identity and communications.
The past identity, suggesting the long sailing voyages of Odysseus recounted by Homer, dates from Odyssey House’s foundation in 1967. In the current environment, however, this mark:
+ Needed to work harder to express Odyssey House’s innovative, forward-thinking leadership role in the recovery realm
+ Did not convey Odyssey House’s leadership in saving lives from substance abuse
+ Did not convey the vibrancy and variety of people and services Odyssey House encompasses
+ Presented difficulty when used in signage or at reduced sizes
+ Is difficult to render in our digital world
+ Lacks the focus, immediacy and urgency of the Odyssey House mission
Strategy
The main goal of the rebranding initiative was to marry Odyssey House's mission and expanded services in a fresh, dynamic and distinctive way that would also enable efficient and effective communication across audiences and channels.
At once capturing the initial letter “O” of “Odyssey” and connoting the solidity of “House,” the new logo is vibrantly colored with an attention-commanding focus on a light that seems to come from within, growing brighter as it builds outward. A bold graphic, the mark stands out against confusion and clutter. By literally “Squaring the Cirlce,” it also demonstrates that the seemingly impossible—achieving liberation from addiction—is indeed possible.
The logo has three layers:
+ The first represents the bedrock of the Odyssey House organization and the foundation on which recovery is built
+ The second represents pulsing outward, growing brighter and committing to change and transformation
+ The third represents finding focus, achieving clarity and realizing potential
Result
The new brand identity with its deceptively simple shape, incorporation of a varied color palette, and clear connection to a positive message, allows Odyssey House to talk about its services in a way that moves easily across a range of digital arenas from the website to social media platforms and with product applications that include signage, stationery and uniforms.
Since re-launching the brand at their annual fundraiser, feedback from industry heads, government and philanthropic funders, and community and political leaders uniformly align with the organization's stated desire to present an expansive vision of recovery that is reflective of a diverse multi-cultural and multi-generational approach to treatment.
Award:
REBRAND 100 Global Awards – Distinction
Designed at Siegel+Gale
Creative Director: Justin Peters
Design Director: Michelle Matthews
Copywriter: Alex Kroll