Identity Re-Design:
Portsmouth Community Development Corporation

Originally the Portsmouth Community Redevelopment Corporation, a nonprofit housing organization, was very simply identified with a rough illustrative treatment of the acronym PCRC, in a formation suggesting the roofline of a home (below left). The type associated with the logo was never consistent. However, the font Optima was used quite often.

With a change to the name Peninsula Community Redevelopment Corporation, the organization wanted a new identity, but wanted to retain some element of the old image. The previous icon was tucked into the “roofline” of an illustration of a house and the font most often used for the text was retained. The new image (above middle) conveyed a much clearer message of the organization being involved in the housing business. As a circular logo, the image was also much easier to incorporate into a wider variety of collateral, marketing and promotional items.

A later name change, to the Peninsula Community Development Corporation, resulted in another logo update (above right), and a change of the colors to be used by the organization. A little less emphasis was placed on the original logo acronym treatment by using a lower percentage of the new color. The color change provided a greater opportunity to reintroduce the nonprofit's revised imagery and made it easier to distinguish newer written communications from those sent during the "blue period."

(Note: My new book, Identity Crisis!: 50 Redesigns That Transformed Stale Identities Into Successful Brands, contains case studies from 35 designers and firms located around the world. Learn more about the book on the Identity Crisis! blog.)

© 2008 Jeff Fisher LogoMotives