Scaling a Trustworthy Brand With No Internal Design Team
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A Healthcare Company Pivots to Respond to the Needs of a Rapidly Changing Pandemic
With the COVID-19 pandemic, Brio realized that the struggle and scramble of these unprecedented times created a widespread need for a reliable and efficient COVID testing service. Through their existing industry insights, expertise and position in the market, Brio could connect an extensive network of labs and testing centers across the US that could provide effective testing services at a manageable cost. But with a brand needing a revamp, from digital to offline assets, and no internal design team of their own, they needed to act fast.
challenge
With Great Success Comes Great Responsibility
During the pandemic, businesses needed to know that their COVID testing services were in the hands of a safe, responsive and efficient business. As a result, Brio needed a partner to quickly and strategically tackle their creative needs across the customer journey, including a new website, product packaging and a complete brand overhaul. All of this needed to fit the quality, reliability and trust the healthcare industry demands.
Kiana Nicio, Marketing Director at Brio, initially pursued the conventional path of engaging multiple agencies for web, product, and brand design. However, as the pandemic constrained operations across the industry, she encountered significant challenges in obtaining high-caliber work that met her timelines and effectiveness criteria.
Our website project was a beast. Much more difficult than anything else we’d worked on before. We had previously gone through a couple of different resources to develop a website that we thought would work for us, but which didn’t work out.
SOLUTION
A Healthy Body of Design Services
Kiana Nicio and Brio approached Superside with all their creative challenges that needed solving:
- A brand redesign. A full brand revamp with complete thematic consistency across all materials and media.
- A website redesign. A website that represented the quality and trustworthiness their service could provide. With Superside, they received a complete website redesign aligned with their new brand identity.
- Modern product packaging. Branded and aesthetically pleasing packaging (including testing kits and other medical materials) that would also meet healthcare standards.
- Business cards and marketing material. To promote Brio’s services to healthcare professionals at conferences.
- Employee merchandise. Welcome packets and merchandise that gave new hires a feeling and understanding of their brand aesthetic.
- Promotional materials and digital advertising.
We had been waiting for a long time for a website, so by the time we got to Superside, we were on a time crunch. Superside rallied multiple designers, an awesome creative director, and two project managers to get this across the finish line.
Nicio didn’t just need design, though. She needed creative direction, which she found with Superside. From work with past design agencies, Brio had a collection of logos and branded material. But barely any was at a level Nicio, and the Brio team felt represented their brand.
As a kickoff, Nicio presented the Superside team with an extensive, patched-together brand guidebook that the creatives could take, adjust and create into something more comprehensive and actionable.
We just said: ‘here's what we think the colors are, here's what we think the fonts might be, and here's what we think the logo should look like.’ From there, Superside came up with a design system around all of this, and they did a great job.
RESULTS
Creating the Complete Design Package for Brio’s Brand Needs
Today, Brio offers testing services to companies in a matter of hours, not days, with testing centers within three hours of all major urban centers in the United States.
Brio used Superside’s full range of capabilities to begin an inside-out refresh of its brand. Starting with the core aspect of Brio’s brand—the logo—Superside created a holistic brand identity in every aspect of their business.
With Superside, Brio created a new logo focused on the “i” of Brio.
Stretching and reforming the “i” theme, Superside wove the new visual identity into all of Brio's packaging and branded materials. The underlying concept was to show the interconnectivity of Brio’s business throughout all facets of the COVID testing and logistics industry.
From their website to business cards, even to the lab testing kits, Superside helped Brio create a full-scale brand experience while ensuring the Brio team seamlessly collaborated with their creative partner.
With this partnership, Brio could quickly brief in their design needs and Superside provided the required services. Brio also experienced a service from Superside that many don’t realize is built into the Creative-as-a-Service model: creative ideation and management.
Superside’s project manager’s job was to rally the designers and staff on the project, budget properly, and keep track of hours and everything else. Superside does a really good job of balancing high-touch involvement without overwhelming me and my plate.
Kiana Nicio and the Brio team knew what their brand represented. They knew how they wanted to appear to their customers and the outside world, but they didn’t have the time or resources to implement it fully.
Now, their customers are greeted with a brand and experience that exudes the reliability and trust expected of a successful and efficient healthcare service.
Using Superside, they gained access to a dedicated team of world-class creatives that could provide them with the brand, product and web design they needed to thrive as a business in the chaos of COVID.
A Healthy Brand Yields “Positive” Results
Brio has worked with Superside since May of 2021. Since then, Superside has provided over 2,900 hours of design and creative work across more than 100 projects.
In 2021, Brio’s top 3 design capabilities used were landing page design (21%), motion graphics design (17%) and ad creative (12%).
In 2022, nearly 40% of Brio’s hours were put towards more landing pages, 25% towards branding and over 11% towards packaging and merch design.
Nicio came to Superside because the other agencies only did what she asked, not providing directional support. With a full creative team at her disposal, she gains access to on-demand creative services across various design disciplines managed under one roof: a true design partner.
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