Entering 2023 With Courage

As we move into 2023, I've been thinking about how to approach a new year of helping social impact organizations take bold steps forward to accomplish their mission.

One theme that keeps coming up for our team is ‘Courage’.

Over the past few years, we’ve been fortunate to work with many courageous organizations and seen courage in action in many forms:

• The courage to take on emotionally fraught challenges in politically charged times

• The courage to address complex and seemingly intractable issues

• The courage to transform from a legacy organization into a modern one in order to continue to have impact during a pandemic

• The courage to stay positive when it’s so easy to go negative

• The courage to be bold in today’s sea of risk-averse organizations

We often encourage our clients to embrace a digital-first culture and take advantage of the benefits that the information age has to offer. That’s central to being a digital creative agency. We love working with clients who accept our default positive messaging approach while communicating the challenges and injustices they are committed to addressing. And we’re proud to work with social impact leaders who have the courage to take risks with their brand in order to stand out, raise awareness, and get more people to care about issues that matter.

When thinking of these risk-takers we’ve worked with, companies like MYNT and organizations like the Romero Institute and their Let’s Green CA! climate justice movement come to mind.

In 2022 we worked with several other organizations that rallied behind bold, courageous brand expressions.

Cause Strategy Partners embraced a bold new brand with a vibrant color palette, distinct typography, and an aesthetic that conveys the vibrant and positive personality of the organization.

The Constructive Dialogue Institute courageously embraced a new name and logo, and a design system that communicates dialogue and the ability for those with divergent viewpoints to have good faith conversations.

Equality Fund had the courage to embody their work to accelerate the power of women, girls, and trans people everywhere by partnering with us to create a bold and immersive digital annual report.

Stem From Dance stepped out of their comfort zone with a new website that is as expressive and immersive as the people behind their programs and the girls who discover STEM through the lens of dance.

Look for case studies about these organizations to arrive in your inbox soon.

It’s probably not surprising to hear that as a creative agency, we love developing bold brands. But being bold is more than just fun for us. Going bold is a strategy. It’s a strategy for attracting and holding the attention of your supporters, advocates, and funders and inspiring them to get behind your cause, take action, and stick with you for the long haul.

As 2023 gets underway, we challenge you to be courageous. To be bold.

From our perspective, being courageous is creating a visual identity and communications strategy that makes you distinct in your space. It’s being willing to stand out — in a good way. It’s taking risks that make people stand up and take notice but are still true to your values and mission. Most importantly, it’s creating a brand that people want to celebrate, proudly and boldly as they come together to help create positive change.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on how courage has shown up in your life and work over the past couple of years. And, I want to share some of our thoughts on being bold and leading with courage:

Article: Dare to Be Bold - Making a Case for Better Social Impact Branding

Article: Birds Aren’t Real - How To Turn a Viral Moment Into A Sustainable Movement

Podcast: How to Communicate Social Impact

P.S. – Looking for a creative partner to help you make a bigger impact in 2023? Let's chat.