A NEW VOICE IN CATHOLIC EDUCATION
Fulcrum Foundation
Brand Identity & Website
The Fulcrum Foundation provides financial assistance to promote and support Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of Seattle primarily through tuition assistance, assistance to schools in need, and initiatives that promote academic excellence and faith formation. Their programs help to ensure that Catholic schools remain open, accessible, and excellent.
Faced with audience fatigue, the foundation needed to focus its message and update its look to help it assert the worthiness of its cause and to stand out in a competitive environment.
Brand Strategy
The personality traits of the incumbent Fulcrum brand—loyalty, tradition, empathy, generosity, etc.—were nearly universally positive. However, they did not resolve to clear, distinctive attributes. A strategy exercise—conducted in collaboration with Stoke—led us to a new set of well-defined and differentiating brand values to inspire action: resourcefulness, collaboration, agility, impact, faith and initiative.
These values, in turn, informed the foundation’s updated brand position: “The Opportunity Engine—Fulcrum harnesses the resources of the community, propelling Catholic education further and faster.”
Visual Identity
The new design system highlights the true inspiration for giving—and the reason for the foundation’s existence—the amazing kids and families who benefit from Seattle’s Catholic education system. A new logo was designed, featuring a symbol layered with meaning. Simple patterns, a new color palette and a graceful use of typography round out the system.
Website
Fulcrum’s website was overhauled as an extension of the re-brand. The new site delivers on the recommendations of the brand strategy, highlighting the catalyzing effect the foundation’s activities have on their beneficiaries. Using a fluid responsive design and the Craft CMS, the new site is optimized to scale gracefully to different devices, and is easily managed and updated by lay users.
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