BC Rent Bank
Brand strategy, visual identity, logo design, website design, website copywriting, information architecture, content strategy, custom WordPress development, custom illustration, project management
BC Rent Bank is a backbone organization providing funding, technology, resources, and training to BC’s provincial rent bank network. Launched in 2019 as a pilot project, BC Rent Bank was entrusted with a three-year mandate to support existing rent banks, establish new rent banks, and create the infrastructure needed to support a province-wide rent bank system.
Three years later, the Province invested nearly $11 million in additional funding to continue to help as many as 20,000 renters maintain their homes in times of immediate financial crisis. To date, BC Rent Bank has provided $6.45M in financial assistance to renters, supported 4,970 households and helped keep 10,770 people housed.
Brand Vision
After successfully completing their pilot project, BC Rent Bank had a renewed vision and bold new goals. They wanted their brand to support their efforts in improving client service delivery, achieving greater operations efficiency, further streamlining access to rent bank services—and engaging diversity, equity, and inclusion support to better serve all renters in BC.
Form Meets Function was invited to partner with BC Rent Bank to elevate the brand in an effort to better support and establish rent banks and the services they provide across the province. We worked with BC Rent Bank to flesh out the brand, in both visual and written form, and deliver a logo, visual identity, and website that reflect their belief that everyone deserves a safe place to call home.
Visual Identity
BC Rent Bank’s visual identity is centred around the concept ‘A ray of hope’. This concept was used to influence all brand touch points including the logo, colour, typography, illustration, and photography.
Custom illustrations, soft shapes, and an inviting colour palette set the tone. Depictions of various housing types and communities from around BC, paired with photos of diverse families and individuals, gives the sense of home and belonging for all. The illustration style is flat, making use of minimalist, two-dimensional shapes with clean, open spaces and crisp edges to create a sense of calm through simplicity.
The colour palette includes shades of warm, welcoming oranges and yellows, as well as muted blues that evoke a sense of safety and security. Optimistic messaging, friendly typography, and images depicting positive outcomes, make the brand a symbol of possibility and optimism.
Logo Concept
For the logo, we designed an icon from the letters ‘BC’ (for British Columbia) with a roof to show the heart of BC Rent Bank—keeping British Columbians housed.
The typeface is clean and casual with simplified letterforms that make use of curved shapes to give a feeling of friendliness and approachability.
“Rent Bank” is stacked and can be used to the right or below the BC icon to provide a horizontal and a vertical version for flexibility in a variety of applications.
“Talking to the team at Form Meets Function and then seeing how they took our story, our values, our vision and mission and interpreted those in new ways was really exciting.”
— Melissa Giles, Managing Director, BC Rent Bank
Website Vision
BC Rent Bank had outgrown their existing website. It contained a plethora of information that was challenging to navigate.
We worked with BC Rent Bank to deliver a website that is well-organized, user-friendly, and accessible to all. Straightforward navigation, intentional information hierarchy, approachable language, and clear calls to action help visitors find help they’re seeking faster.
The WordPress website is fluid across devices and will allow for flexibility as BC Rent Bank grows.
Credits
Jeremy Lind of Viewpoint Digital, custom WordPress development
Wendy Lees of Wendy Lees Creative, brand strategy and website writing