Omni

omni institute

Repositioning a 40-year institution for the future

Brand Identity
Verbal Identity
Brand Guidelines
Website Design
Webflow Development
Marketing Collateral

Nonprofit Social Science Consultancy

Challenge

Omni’s visual identity had grown organically over time, resulting in fragmented assets, inconsistent messaging, and a digital presence that felt darker and more academic than the people behind the work. Omni needed their first-ever comprehensive brand system to honor their credibility while helping them feel more human, approachable, and future-focused.

Approach

We partnered with Omni to build a cohesive brand ecosystem—verbal, visual, and digital—that could scale with their work. By pairing a more human, confident voice with a vibrant, flexible visual identity, we helped Omni communicate complex topics with warmth and purpose.

Verbal brand guidelines: Kat Neis
Logo Animation: Sam Pickett

Brand Design

Your brand is your unspoken ambassador before your staff get on the call or do any work.

— Rachel Hayes, Director of Impact, Omni Institute

Your brand is kind of the unspoken ambassador before your staff even, like, get on the call or open their mouths or do any work. My name is Rachel Hayes. I'm the director of impact at Omni Institute, And Omni is a research and evaluation nonprofit with a focus in the areas of behavioral health, community health, justice, economic security, and children and families. You know, prospective clients are looking at your website. They're looking at your proposals. They're interacting with your brand, and you're not in the room. Like, your brand is doing the work without you. And so it just wasn't, like, the that making that really great first impression that it could have been.

A clear, confident verbal & visual brand

Visual Identity highlights

Clean typography system
Color palette that brings warmth and energy without sacrificing credibility
Stock photography that emphases human, hopeful imagery that reflects the communities Omni serves
Bold and clean icon system
Detailed brand guidelines

Yellow background with text listing verbal tone qualities: Informative, Engaging, Confident, Inclusive.

Grid of colored squares arranged in six columns and five rows, featuring dark blues and white at top, transitioning through blues, greens, yellows, reds, and oranges in lower rows.

‍Verbal brand work included:

Purpose & vision articulation
Clearly defined differentiators
Brand values
Core audience definition
Writing style guide with:
- Verbal tone & personality
- Writing principles and examples
- Editorial checklist
- Clear, usable guidelines for day-to-day writing

Written guidelines were especially critical for Omni’s team, who produce a large volume of academic content. This enables the Omni marketing team to more easily communicate the impact of their work.

Text displaying a design concept with fonts and colors: 'Our Approach' in steel blue, 'Human-First Research. Community-Driven Solutions.' in bold navy, and additional descriptive text about data shaping lives and customized research.

Why Omni Institute chose Emerald Design

— Rachel Hayes, Director of Impact, Omni Institute

Thing that really impressed us about Emerald was that you had instances of articulating brands that had a really complex service offering, and you were able to make these complex products and services accessible and exciting, and you were able to communicate them about them in a direct way. So that was, I think, there's a lot of things about Emerald that we loved, but I think that was the clincher. My name is Rachel Hayes. I'm the director of impact at Omni Institute. And Omni is a research and evaluation nonprofit with a focus in the areas of behavioral health, community health, justice, economic security, and children and families. I'm curious what made you decide to to work with us. I know you were interviewing other agencies at the time. What made Emerald stand out? One of the things that really made Emerald stand out was the complexity of your previous clients. So one thing we were looking for is experience of working with clients that weren't really simplistic, like, direct to consumer or business to to consumer brands. And there's all kinds of industries and organizations that have a simple service offering, and that's totally fine. But that's not Omni. We have a very we do really complex, rigorous work, and we have very specific client types, but there are a lot of really specific client types. And so one thing that really impressed us about Emerald was that you had instances of articulating brands that had a really complex service offering, and you were able to make these complex products and services accessible and exciting, and you were able to communicate them about them in a direct way. So that was, I think there's a lot of things about Emerald that we loved, but I think that was the clincher.

brand application

Omni branded stationery set including letterhead, business card, envelope, notepad with orange geometric pattern, services flyer, and pencil, all on dark blue background.

Brand applications that make adoption easy

To ensure the brand could be used consistently across teams, we designed a full suite of practical, flexible brand applications.

LinkedIn team cover options with customizable colorways
Report design refresh, shifting from overused stock photography to the new pattern system
A modular Mailchimp newsletter template with repeatable sections
Business cards and stationery
PowerPoint presentation template
Updated social media visuals aligned with the new brand

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