Ottawa Community Land Trust
Client
Sectors
Housing
Services
Brand design
Collateral design
Communications strategy
Message guide
Website design
Canada is in a housing crisis, and locally in Ottawa, people are feeling the pinch.
For every new affordable home built with government subsidies, Ottawa loses several older affordable homes in the private market, including through renovictions. That's why the Ottawa Community Land Trust (OCLT) works to preserve affordable housing in Ottawa – and ensure that it stays affordable forever. By purchasing real estate, this community-run organization ensures that housing can stay affordable while being used for the community's benefit.
As a new organization, the land trust worked with us to build a stronger foundation in communications at an important moment in their trajectory. We supported OCLT as they collaborated with Tapestry Community Capital in raising $3,000,000 in bonds to support their work protecting affordable housing — like the first two residential buildings they bought in Ottawa.
The Ottawa Community Land Trust approached us to help strengthen their communications and rebrand their organization. We started with a strategy and research phase in order to define their audiences, priorities, and objectives. The strategy and research phase was conducted to ensure that OCLT's communications activities and core brand positioning were aligned with their organizational mandate and priorities. To accomplish this, we wrote a Communications Strategy to thoughtfully articulate the land trust's communications objectives and how their team planned to reach them. Additionally, we created a Message Guide that codifies their organization's messaging and brand voice while ensuring that all messaging is persuasive to their target audiences.
After the strategy phase, we led the Ottawa Community Land Trust through a full visual rebranding including creating a new logo suite and brand; designing a new website; and setting them up with a new suite of branded collateral and templates.
While we discussed their goals for the new brand, the OCLT team asked us to create a visual identity that would embody both their community-centred nature and the professionalism needed to present at Ottawa’s City Hall with conviction. The resulting brand is engaging to their target audiences and easy to use for their small-but-mighty team.
