Services
Brand Strategy, Naming, Logo and Visual Identity
Sector
Nonprofit/Human Services
Teen Living Programs had been serving Chicago’s most vulnerable young people since 1976. For more than four decades, they provided emergency shelter, transitional housing, education, workforce development, and health care exclusively for youth experiencing homelessness, ages 14 to 24. They were the only agency in the city focused solely on that population, and they were good at it. But the name had stopped doing its job. By the time they came to Substance, Teen Living Programs had grown well beyond transitional housing into a full continuum of services supporting young people.
Their programs include a drop-in resource center, community housing, employment and education programming, aftercare, street outreach, mental health support, and policy advocacy. The name described one piece of what they once were. It said nothing about the breadth of what they had become, or the ambition behind all of it.
After 43 years, it was time for a name that matched who they had become.
Impact
The results of the Ignite rebrand were tangible and immediate. Increased numbers in revenue, foundation grants, and volunteers were evident in the first year. In addition, staff found young people to be more receptive to the new name, one that spoke to possibility and momentum rather than labeling them by their housing status.
0 %
Increase in contributions and grants in the rebrand year
0 %
Total revenue growth. The organization moved from a deficit to a surplus in a single year.
+ 0
Young people served annually
Brand Vision
Substance developed the name Ignite, with the tagline Futures with promise.
The name does what the best names do: it opens outward. Ignite hope. Ignite advocacy. Ignite community. Each phrase points somewhere different, but they all start from the same place: the belief that a spark, applied at the right moment, can change the direction of a life.
The visual identity was built to carry that energy without overpowering it. Bold enough to command attention on a bus banner or building signage, clean enough to work across program materials, donor communications, and everything in between. The brand is as dynamic as the young people it serves.
The strong visuals lend themselves to bus signage, apparel, event materials, and program collateral. The brand is as bold and full of promise as the young people it serves.
