Brand Refresh For Sunshine Cottage School for Deaf Children
Refreshing a Recognized Brand Without Losing What People Know and Trust
The Challenge
Sunshine Cottage School for Deaf Children had an established name and strong brand recognition in San Antonio, but its visual identity and messaging were beginning to feel dated. The goal wasn’t to reinvent the brand. It was to refresh it—making it feel warmer, more inviting, and contemporary while retaining the familiarity and recognition the school had built over many years.
The refreshed brand also needed to communicate effectively with several important audiences, including families of deaf and hard-of-hearing children, physicians and medical offices, and donors who support the school’s mission.
The Approach
Working as part of a three-person BTY team over the course of a year, my primary focus was brand messaging and helping ensure the refreshed identity remained true to Sunshine Cottage.
The existing logo was subtly modernized with an updated green and yellow palette and a more contemporary typeface. The tagline evolved from simply “School for Deaf Children” to the more descriptive “A Listening and Spoken Language School for Deaf Children,” immediately providing greater clarity about the school and its approach.
We also refreshed the broader color palette, revised the vision statement, and updated marketing materials, including service flyers and a rack card designed specifically for medical offices—an important referral audience for the school.
Bringing the Brand to Life
The refreshed brand extended beyond everyday communications. Sunshine Cottage’s annual Noche del Sol gala is an important fundraising event, and we developed the creative theme and video concepts to support it. The gala video was designed to create an emotional connection with attendees, reinforcing the impact of Sunshine Cottage’s work and encouraging participation in the silent and live auctions and donations to the school.
The Outcome
The result was evolution rather than reinvention: a warmer, more contemporary and cohesive brand that preserved Sunshine Cottage’s established recognition while giving the organization clearer, more consistent ways to communicate its mission and services to families, medical professionals and supporters.