Start Small Think Big got its start offering pro-bono legal services to small business owners through a dedicated volunteer pool. Over time it expanded its professional pool and added pro bono financial and marketing services too. They found that 95% of the small business owners they served were women and people of color, and their support of these businesses had a ripple effect within their neighborhoods and communities.

To better reflect the ways in which the organization had grown and to communicate their commitment to creating more fair and equitable conditions for the operation and growth of the small businesses they served, Start Small Think Big’s brand needed to do a better job of explain what they did and what they were all about. Their purpose was compelling and clear, yet the way they explained and expressed themselves sounded very corporate and uninspiring.

To capture the ethos of the organization, we landed on the core brand idea, “We’re all for small.” This simple line served as a rallying call for the staff, volunteers, and partners alike—an expression of their belief in the power of small businesses to create a positive ripple effect across their communities, strengthening the social and economic fabric of the country writ large.

Inspired by this brand idea, the Johnson Banks team retained an awkwardly-placed exclamation mark from the old Start Small Think Big logo, and used a redrawn version of it to anchor the visual language of the new identity—bold, confident, exciting, and energetic. The exclamation mark, replicated and rotated around a fixed point, resembles a flower and illustrates the potential for growth implied by the organization’s name.

Check out Johnson Banks’ full case study to learn more.