St. Joseph Children’s Home has provided a safe and loving home to over 75,000 children since 1849 through its four core programs: Behavioral Health Services, Child Development Center, Residential Treatment Program, and Therapeutic Foster Care and Adoption Program.
The Challenge
St. Joseph opened its doors as a Catholic orphanage for displaced children following the Cholera epidemic in 1832. The organization has evolved over the years and is no longer home to orphans, but to children who have been removed from their homes due to abuse and neglect. In addition, they connect children to families through foster care and adoption, provide trauma-informed therapy, and high quality childcare. Although a staple in the Louisville community, they were known more for their large summer picnic, and were still thought of as an orphanage. They needed a website that clearly communicated their mission and holistic care for both children and families.
Our Process and Solution
We began by mapping out their four primary services and identifying the specific needs of distinct audiences. Defining website goals and outcomes helped to clarify the content each audience needed in order to build intuitive user journeys. The site is organized to focus on the primary services and audiences, defining which are available to the broader community, while still serving the needs of their secondary audiences.
Many elements of the existing visual identity are childlike in nature, featuring a hand-drawn logo and rainbow color palette. However St. Joes has been striving over the years to elevate its brand to match the sophistication and importance of the services they provide. The design of the website marries the childlike logo with a modern, refined approach to the brand. Together, ample white space, rounded softer shapes, pops of color, and a new photography library combine to lift the image of the brand.
