Delivering Hope to the Mental Health Community

all walks of life
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All Walks of Life is a Baltimore-based nonprofit, focusing on a holistic approach to living with and treating mental illness.
“We don’t want another boring website“, stated Danielle Lee, Marketing Lead. All Walks of Life didn’t want the typical look for a mental-health focused organization. Inspired by hope, laughs, and community, AWL wanted a website redesign that reflected the organization’s impact in the community. Based in Baltimore, AWL is community-centered, outpatient mental health treatment organization providing the highest level of comprehensive care throughout Maryland’s schools and communities. AWL desired a website design that was as creative as their culturally competent and holistic community approach to mental health.

AWL also desired a staff portal (intranet) to serve its staff members. By providing confidential employee-only access to internal information and documents, AWL ensured its staff could access pertinent information easily and remotely.

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PROJECT OVERVIEW
BRAND IDENTITY
WEBSITE
Overview

the plan

Instead of focusing on specific colors, patterns, or other visual cues, we first honed in on the psychographics of the target market. It was important to determine how AWL stakeholders (patients, providers, staff, and the community) would expect from the website and interact with it. There was an overwhelming feeling that its current website didn’t demonstrate the hopeful and joyful outcomes patients and providers alike receive after assistance from AWL.

With the Intranet being a vital part of how staff members stay abreast of AWL news and information, it was important for the portal to operate smoothly. Besides creating a beautiful and simple entry page, we focused on creating separate portals for the different departments and assigning individual passwords to the over 40 staff members and providers.

the impact

  • Developed an staff-only Intranet to streamline employee processes
  • Designed a website that reinforces the organization’s creative approach, professionalism, and reliability in serving the community
  • Represented the AWL audience with carefully-curated stock photography
  • Created a stronger visual identity and brand

Brand Identity

Our goal was to demonstrate AWL’s brand mood by expanding the current color palette with graphic language and selecting stock photography that represented the diversity and hope among AWL’s demographic.

We used simple shapes as AWL’s repeating pattern, representing their focus on mental health. Each shape arranged is supported by the others to make a complete system of support, which is indicative of AWL’s village-centered approach.

PHOTO SELECTION

Obtaining the right photos to demonstrate the AWL audience and its desired emotions – joy & hope – was at the center of the design aesthetic. AWL wanted photos that reflected the diversity in urban communities, like the City of Baltimore.

Our goal was to ensure the photos looked consistent with similar shooting styles, lighting, message, and subjects.

We choose images to represent the AWL audience and their varied age, gender, race, and stage in life. We didn’t want the photos to look too polished or professional, but more “real life”. We choose images that appeared as if we captured random photos of people living and working within the AWL community.

SEE website in action

graphic language

We expanded AWL’s current color palette to include custom backgrounds, fonts, and icons. Against the unconventional combination of shades of orange and blue, we added professional elements that are easy to use and duplicate throughout the organization.

brand mood board

A holistic and collaborative environment, we developed AWL’s brand mood board with their clients and stakeholders in mind. We also choose images with messages and core values similar to AWL’s, namely teamwork, diversity, redefining what’s possible for mental health care, and of course, joy and hope.

COLOR PALETTE

We used AWL’s current color palette and channeled them into color blocking shapes, we distributed the bold hues evenly throughout the design.

SEE THE COLOR PALETTE N ACTION

HEADERS

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ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
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SUB-HEADERS

AaBbCc

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ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
1234567890!@#$%^&*?

BODY TEXT

AaBbCc

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1234567890!@#$%^&*?

All Walks of Life has a sensitive mission, working in the mental health sector is challenging. With the new website design, we targeted the desired emotional results of its audience and stakeholders. At the center of the design, we wanted to convey the joy and hope AWL inspires in its clients, providers, and staff.

Website Design

While AWL was currently on the WordPress platform, the design was “boring” and “too plain”. One of the perks of developing with WordPress is its scalability and capability of transforming an inspiring design into a hopeful and vibrant one.

AWL wanted to remain on WordPress, so we choose a flexible framework to design the new look. Along with an offset color blocking technique, we incorporated statistics and facts into the design to raise mental health awareness.

It was important to balance the creative design with the serious nature of mental health care, while still adhering to AWL’s desire for a joyful and hopeful aesthetic. By using simple text of varying sizes, bold call-to-action buttons, and big shapes, we made the most important information stand out.

SEE WEBSITE in action

BEFORE

AFTER

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