Today, South Carolina Community Loan Fund (SCCLF) has unveiled its new logo and brand identity. The change comes two years after the organization expanded its program areas and geographic focus, changing its name from Lowcountry Housing Trust to South Carolina Community Loan Fund.
“This rebrand comes at an exciting time for us after celebrating our tenth anniversary last year and opening new satellite offices Midlands and Upstate,” said Michelle Mapp, CEO of SCCLF. “We expanded our program areas and mission in 2014 because we realized that more than just housing is necessary to transform communities. People were coming to us saying ‘it’s great that we have housing now but we don’t have a place in our neighborhood to buy groceries, or to work, or for our children to go to school’. We chose to serve in our four program areas because we believe they are key to creating thriving, economically resilient communities and we needed a logo that reflected our new mission as well as our commitment to serving communities statewide.”
So the organization swapped out the tree with house branches that represented their brand for ten years for symbols that reflected their four, interrelated program areas: affordable housing, healthy food retail, community facilities, and community businesses. The new logo incorporates these icons along with “building blocks” to form the shape of South Carolina. The organization’s tagline “investing in community” remains.
The logo and new brand identity were developed in collaboration with a Charleston-based firm, Obviouslee Marketing. The new identity also includes a series of icons and a bright color palette with a designated color for each of the program areas.
View the video on SCCLF’s new brand identity below:
“We wanted to create something that was fresh and energizing but didn’t feel too foreign to our team and supporters. We felt like this logo was a natural evolution from our old logo; it illustrates a definite shift in our organization and priorities but still feels familiar,” said Victoria Baker, SCCLF’s Communications and Development Manager. “Aligning our mission with our look is an exciting step for us and will allow us develop a deeper, more consistent brand throughout the state.”
The new logo and brand identity will appear across the organization’s online platforms starting today, including the organizations website. In addition to the theme updates, the organization also launched a series of structural changes and new pages on their website today in an effort to simplify messaging and make the site more user-friendly. Highlights include a new resources page, information on the organization’s technical assistance services, and borrower stories.
SCCLF will be hosting open houses at all three of their offices to celebrate the rebrand launch on Tuesday, July 12th. The open houses will allow local supporters to check out the organization’s new office spaces, see their new look in person, and meet and greet with SCCLF’s growing staff. Community members are invited to drop by the offices any time between 9:00am and 1:00pm on the 12th. More information is available here.
