AAN Brand Transformation

Positioning & Strategy

I joined the core rebranding team to review agency findings and shape our overall strategy. My deep research into industry trends and best practices provided valuable strategic insights.

By asking thought-provoking questions, I helped unify our strategic direction and design phases. This collaborative effort successfully positioned our brand as "The catalyst" in brain health.

As a member of the core rebranding team, I participated in interviews and reviewed the agency's findings. My insights were particularly valuable, as I always conduct in-depth research on historical context and current trends for every campaign and initiative I design. My regular deep dives into best practices—both within the medical and association spaces and beyond—allowed me to ask thought-provoking questions of the team and our partner, which helped unify our strategic direction and design phases.

This work helped our agency determine our position as "The catalyst" in brain health.

Now that our agency partners and the core rebrand team agreed on our position in the market, it was on to how we move forward. Our partners created an internal rally cry with four key categories for us to check our future content and designs against. Now with every design, I use this method to guide marketers, writers, fellow designers, and myself. This has proven an invaluable tool in keeping us within our brand.

Visual Design: Updated Branding

Translating our new positioning into a visual identity was time-intensive, but our established strategy made reaching consensus much easier.

I provided technical input and united the team around viewing the brand as a complete ecosystem, resulting in a modern, scalable design system that honors our heritage.

Developing the visual representation of our revised positioning and verbal identity was the most time-consuming part of this project. But having those elements established made it much easier to reach a consensus on the visual design and subsequent digital direction. Along with providing technical input, I successfully united the team around the principle that a brand is more than just a logo—it's an entire ecosystem.

After several rounds of feedback, our agency partner delivered exactly what we were looking for: a modern design with a scalable system that honored the brand's heritage.

Validation: Sparking a Movement

I proposed "All Green" as a visual rallying cry to accompany our new tagline, prioritizing engagement over rigid uniformity.

By encouraging a spectrum of greens alongside our core corporate colors, we sparked an organic, widespread brand movement.

The results are highly visible: staff and members now consistently incorporate green into their wardrobes, presentations, and social media.

Before our agency partners began the visual design phase, I urged them and the AAN to consider making "All Green" the accompanying rallying cry for the new "Brain health for all" tagline.

I justified this approach with a simple principle: engagement. Allowing people to embrace a wider range of greens helps create a visual movement rather than just a singular brand—think of a popular Irish holiday. This idea was accepted and implemented while still keeping a set of core greens as the official corporate colors.

The results have been overwhelmingly positive. I now see most staff wearing something green every day, and members do the same at every event. They've even started incorporating the color into their lectures, social posts, and even their professional wardrobe.