Southern Ohio Wolfdog Sanctuary Rebrand

Selecting the Organization

This redesign of this organization was the basis of a project that tasked us with researching a business of our choice and finding a way to redesign their visual approach to their brand. I chose the Southern Ohio Wolfdog Sanctuary since I have always loved animals and viewed this as both a good cause as well as one that desperately needed an overhaul in their website's presentation. The website is highly cluttered with very few design consistencies that allowed the website to appear professional which was what I wanted to resolve and allow the organization to be able to reach a broader audience and increase potential donation revenue.

To-Do List Needed for Rebrand

- Create a new visual system that would unify the site's theme and presentation.

- Design a new logo to give a fresh new identity to the brand that can be marketable for potential donors and other supporters.

- Expand the brand by creating some fitting and affordable merchandise that can help bolster income and allow for the facilities to operate on a larger budget.

The Process

Evaluating the Website

The website upon being inspected had a bit of theme confliction on the home page. After the initial images of the home page, there was an immediate disconnect in the theme and presentation with both the color scheme as well as fonts found within the text. This would be one of my first major priorities when undergoing this rebranding. Another issue that this website shows in its layout is that it was appeared to be designed for mobile devices at its core instead of conventional computers and laptops since there is plenty of dead space on each side of the content. This would be another major upgrade needed for the website's presentation in order to greatly improve its impressions.

A more extensive dive into the evaluation of the site is located at the bottom of the page in both the "Process Book" document as well as the "Rebrand Proposal Presentation" which go over more of the issues the site had as well as more visual examples.

Updating the Identity

The final topic that deserved some attention as well, was approaching the organization's logo. Although it is a very clean and official looking logo, It can feel like it was a logo meant for more of a law enforcement K9 badge rather than a wildlife preserve. My goal with this section of the rebranding was to create a new mascot that can serve as the new face of the organization.

To design the new mascot, I nicknamed her "Riley the Wolfdog" during production, I took inspiration from mascots like Smokey the Bear and other similar mascots into consideration that are associated with wildlife preservation. This would ultimately have me fall on the idea of creating Riley's image of being from the neck up with a ranger hat and the cheery smile that greets all she meets.

Drafting her design was much easier to access and iterate on due to the mobility of drawing her on an art program via an iPad and stylus. I was able to change and edit her on a dime whenever an idea came about for testing or make use of down time for more productive means. What resulted was a design for Riley that I was ultimately happy with and would be able to fulfill the role she was needed for.

Final Website Outcomes

The landing page of the website came out very well as it made it much more accessible for desktop users. The menu was made larger and simplified as parts of the website would be consolidated due to similar information. The social media plug-ins for the organization are made immediately more accessible as each of the icons would be a clickable link to the organization's homepage on each sight.

The roster of the wolfdogs residing at the sanctuary has been remade to have a standardized grid structure in case the organizations has any new additions or other roster changes involved. The format allows for a scrollable function to ensure all furry members can all be accounted for. Another concept that can be included would be to have all images clickable for a full profile each.

The Wolfdog Information page had been consolidated into a single page as each of the sections were previously pages of their own on the organization's actual website. Consolidating these articles onto the same page seemed like the best route due to how short each section was on their individual pages. This way the information was made much more accessible to viewers.