UNC Health

Overview

UNC Health Care has strong historic roots dating back over 70 years, but was facing an identity that was outdated and didn’t properly reflect their aspirations as a system—their focus shifted to empowering health, not just health care, and caring for people across the state of North Carolina. In addition, the system was undergoing a larger scale transformation effort culturally and operationally to provide a modern, integrated approach to meet patient needs. As they looked to transform as a system, they needed to bring their brand along on that journey.

A robust discovery process, including internal interviews and consumer insights, confirmed a positioning for the system at the convergence of empathy and expertise, allowing it to stand out from local competition, including academic-focused Duke Health and community-focused Novant Health. Research also supported the decision to drop the word “Care” from the name, allowing the system to stretch beyond typical health care boundaries and reflect its future ambitions.

With these insights in mind, we created a visual identity that proudly displays the duality of the system, maintaining the traditional Carolina Blue that the system has proudly displayed since 1952, while introducing a new, modern secondary color palette. A robust socialization process helped to navigate the relationship between the health system and university, driving buy-in across the system. We simplified the system’s brand architecture to reinforce the idea of ONE UNC Health and supported the activation process to introduce and integrate the new brand across the system. The result is a modern, aspirational brand that reflects the intersection of empathy and expertise, propelling the organization on their path of transformation.