The Ten Oaks Project

Known affectionately as “Ten Oaks,” the organization has been a steadfast supporter of 2SLGBTQI+ youth and families, providing care and community when it’s most needed. Founded in 2004 as the first camp of its kind in Canada, Ten Oaks recognized that their 20th anniversary was the perfect opportunity to refresh their branding and communications.

Their new branding and communications strategy needed to speak to a wide and diverse audience: the kids and youth at camp, their parents, funders, and community partners. The key challenge at hand was to honour the organization’s history and roots while modernizing the “look and feel” — particularly to engage their campers and youth participants. As a nonprofit that runs summer camps, it was essential to have an authentic brand that could come to life through fun merch — something that kids, staff, and alumni would be proud to sport. Equally important to showcase were the community programs that Ten Oaks runs year-round, separately from their camps, to support 2SLGBTQI+ youth and families.

We began by developing a Communications Strategy and Message Guide. Strengthening the organization’s communications strategy, brand positioning, and messaging was a crucial part of setting the Ten Oaks Project up for success. We ensured that the organization’s communications outputs were aligned with their core organization-wide goals, overall mandate, and target audiences. After a research phase and interviews with their team, we authored a Communications Strategy that outlines key objectives, and exactly how the Ten Oaks Project team can accomplish them. We also worked together to refresh their core messaging and brand positioning.

When the strategy and messaging phase was completed, we moved to the design phase and fully revitalized their visual identity, delivering an updated logo, suite of sub-logos, brand guide, and a complete set of branded materials. The new brand nodded to Ten Oaks’ past by keeping the tree in the logo, while streamlining and modernizing the design.

We designed a suite of materials for Ten Oaks, including templates, merch, and assets that can be used across summer camps, social media, community programs, and other on and offline touchpoints. The resulting brand works just as well on social media as it does on a bucket hat sported by a 13 year old at camp.

Throughout the project, we collaborated closely with Ten Oaks’ team, ensuring the brand felt authentic, inclusive, and playful. There is a certain magic that comes with attending a camp, and for Ten Oaks’ campers, this magic runs even deeper due to the camp’s goal of supporting 2SLGBTQI+ youth and families. 

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