NCC Kids Rebrand

While helping National Community Church shift its brand architecture, it was determined that a hybrid approach was necessary for its Family Ministries. The children’s ministry, “Crosswalk Kids” was out of brand alignment, and had little connection to the parent brand. This was further evident as more ministries were shifting under the church brand. The name Crosswalk Kids had been used since its inception and was near and dear to the hearts of leadership, but it was confusing for new guests trying to understand its connection to the church. Adding to the confusion, individual classes were sub-branded with names that made it unclear which kids belonged in which class, causing extended check-in times, and leaving parents confused and frustrated.  

 We identified the following goals:

• Bring Crosswalk Kids into alignment with the parent brand to avoid confusion for new guests.
• Allow flexibility for fun, childlike expression of the brand in environments and communication.
• Create an atmosphere aimed at drawing in young families: to attend, volunteer, and empower parents to lead their families spiritually through resources and events beyond Sundays.

After conducting the audit and research, we ran the team through a series of working sessions to lay the groundwork for the change. As is so often the case in churches, teams often want to appeal to everyone. While we want you to be open to everyone, you have to work hard to truly identify the core audience, which helps determine how you can shape visuals, messaging, and the environment to draw those people. 

After a series of workshops, we landed with a playful secondary mark that fits in the larger brand context. This forged the connection to the main parent brand, adding perceptual strength to National Community Church as a whole by expanding the offerings of the parent brand, while also allowing NCC Kids to tap into the existing market strength and recognizability of the parent brand.

The look began as letter characters and shapes, and through our refinement process with the clients, evolved into a custom font and hand-illustrated graphics. The new look blends a child-like wonder with the entrepreneurial spirit of the parent brand and life in the Washington, DC region. It also worked well in a multi-site context allowing some flexibility at campuses to feature contextualized icons through secondary style elements in background patterns.

For nostalgia and connection to the former brand, some old brand elements were carried over and modernized to fit. The illustrations provide an exciting sense of activity and movement that perfectly characterizes life in the DC region for the young families who call it home.