Re-branding the Boulder County Public Health HIV/STI Outreach Program for Greater Public Awareness

The Challenge

The Boulder County Public Health Department in Boulder, Colorado serves county residents with an array of health-related services. Until recently, however, the HIV/STI Outreach Program (STI means Sexually Transmitted Infection)—though a vitally important division of the Health Department—simply wasn’t getting enough public awareness and outreach to achieve its mission. As one of the few authoritative local resources offering STI awareness and prevention, HIV, Hepatitis B and C testing and counseling, syringe exchange services, and STI education services, the HIV/STI Outreach Program needed to market itself more effectively to the medical community and other community outreach organizations.

Kate Storm, the HIV/STI Outreach Program Coordinator, knew she needed outside help to achieve this increased public awareness.

“Public health is totally new territory for branding and graphic design, but we knew we needed to work with professionals if we were going to draw significant attention to this one tiny, but very important, program at the health department,” she says. “We had to find a more effective way to encourage people to seek us out—we’re the experts, after all—rather than just Googling for information, which can sometimes be dangerous in this field, because there’s a lot of misinformation out there.”

The Solution

In March 2006, Storm researched several Denver and Boulder area graphic design and marketing firms, looking for one that could put an individual stamp on the HIV/STI Outreach Program. The initial project was to be an informative, eight-page brochure in English and Spanish, suitable for distribution to medical providers and community outreach organizations—and motivating enough to get the medical community to use the HIV/STI Outreach Program as a key resource in their own STI education and prevention programs. This initial project would also include developing a distinctive, memorable logo design.

“I looked at a lot of different graphic design firms and marketing agencies, and they all had very similar-looking designs across their client bases,” says Storm. “I didn’t want my brochure—or my logo—to look like one that was done for an accounting firm. I had to have a brand image that spoke to people about public health and STI education and prevention. Finding a firm that could deliver that at a reasonable price wasn’t easy. Until I found White Ink Graphics.”

Storm says she was impressed with the distinctiveness of White Ink Graphics’ graphic design and photography. The unique looks the firm had created for each of their clients convinced her that White Ink Graphics could produce a distinctive brand for her own department. And White Ink Graphics won the bid for the initial brochure project by proposing the most cost-effective solution.

Storm began working with Jen White, White Ink Graphics’ founder and creative director, in April 2006. Storm says she found White easy to work with, readily accessible, and very detail oriented. The details were extremely important in this project, because the brochure and logo design had to go through several layers of approval and involved many revisions, in order to meet stringent governmental guidelines about what can be said in a public health publication. White helped Storm build consensus about the right approach within the public health department by listening carefully and coming up with helpful suggestions and creative approaches that captured the heart of what the brochure and logo needed to communicate.

“Jen made the whole process so easy because she is incredibly talented and incredibly professional to work with,” Storm says. “I particularly valued her ability to continue revising and to deal effectively with the bureaucracy and approvals on our end. She took it all in stride and really took pride in her work.”

The Results

When White presented Storm with the final brochure and new logo design in September 2006—right on schedule—Storm and her entire team were impressed with the results. Storm says the brochure has given the HIV/STI Outreach Program a fresh, professional look and feel that makes her proud to distribute it to the healthcare community.

“Essentially, this project has given our program a face in the community,” Storm says. “That’s exactly what we needed to achieve. I couldn’t be more pleased.”

Would Storm recommend White Ink Graphics to her colleagues in public health?

“I already have,” she says. “I’ve recommended her internally and to other programs in public health. And we’re planning to call on Jen and White Ink Graphics for future projects. That will include a fresh look for our own Boulder County Public Health Department Web site.”