The Adler Centre
Railyard 2022 (Winter)/ Research, Brand Strategy, Brand Identity, Visual Design, UX Strategy, Website Design, Verbal Identity
A long-time community institution, the Adler Centre is a counselling clinic and educational site that serves people of all backgrounds. Their practices are uniquely rooted in the Adlerian school of psychology, which emphasizes belonging and individual care. Through its affordable counselling services and educational workshops, the centre is helping people improve their relationships with themselves, their loved ones, and their community.
APPROACH
Immersion
We started off this project by taking time to research and learn the basics about Adlerian psychology, Adlerian beliefs, and Alfred Adler. As we quickly found out, these topics have a lot of depth and can take years to fully understand. Thankfully, the Adler Centre team provided us with a catalog of resources to expedite our learning process. Important to Adlerian beliefs are community, belonging, holism, and individual care. With this in mind, we wanted to integrate every component of Adlerian thought into our design and strategies.
Brand Strategy
Working in collaboration with the Adler team, we were able to find alignment on key elements of their brand strategy, including their values, characteristics, audiences, and more.
This process was as rewarding as it was challenging. One of our main difficulties when working on the brand strategy was being careful with our use of language. The Adler Centre serves a diverse range of clients who come to the center to receive support with a range of challenges.Understanding this, we were able to fine-tune the brand strategy to be inclusive of people from all backgrounds.
Visual Language
The Adler Centre’s previous branding had been around for a long time and needed a refresh. In tandem with the brand strategy, we created new branding elements that were modern while also staying true to Adlerian values. This is most noticeable in the choice of colors for the brand, as well as the imagery, icons, and logo.
Brand Identity
Designing the Adler Centre’s logo was a fun challenge that really pushed us creatively. Throughout the design process, we wanted to incorporate different motifs into the logo, including elements of Adlerian psychology, speech, and holism. The ideal logo should be more than just an ownable mark, rather, it should also be visually provocative and engaging. By combining feedback from the client and our advisors, we were able to achieve this intended feel through a new logo.
Verbal Identity
Working closely with our advisors, we were able to create a verbal identity that represents the Adler Centre core. It was designed to capture their expertise and compassion as Adlerian practitioners, but in a way that is approachable for community members to understand. This verbal identity serves as a tool for their writers to use in order to maintain creative consistency within their copywriting.
UX Strategy & Website Design
As we kickstarted the UX Strategy, the Adler Centre team made it clear that they wanted their revamped website to be a safe space that feels like it’s holding you. Understanding this, our goal was to design a welcoming and calming space for people to connect with the Adler Centre’s breadth of offerings. As well, we wanted to improve the user experience by designing an intuitive navigation system that makes relevant information easily accessible to website users. After working closely alongside the client, we were able to design a branded website that successfully accomplished all of our goals.
Impact
Over the course of 4 months we listened and engaged with the Adler Centre team to understand their thinking and needs and were able to deliver a new brand strategy, visual identity, verbal identity, and website design. The new design will help the Adler Centre reach new heights as they continue to foster community connection.
