OVERVIEW
The brand at a glance
Meridian grew by acquisition and kept every clinic's original signage, so patients could not tell they were inside the same network. I built one identity system with enough flexibility to respect local reputation while making the group legible, and documented it so nine sites could roll out without central sign-off.
Tools
Brand identity for Meridian Health Group — signage applied at a clinic entrance
CONTEXT
Why the old identity failed
This Porfolio project is under development and will be updated soon.
Six years of acquisitions left nine visual identities, four appointment-letter templates, and a website that looked unrelated to the buildings. Referring physicians did not know which clinics were part of the group, so referrals leaked to competitors who were easier to identify.
The constraint was emotional as much as visual. Several clinics had thirty-year local reputations under their original names, and erasing them outright would have cost more trust than the inconsistency did.
BRAND GOALS
What the system had to do
Make group membership obvious at every patient touchpoint.
Preserve local clinic equity instead of erasing it in one sweep.
Meet accessibility contrast requirements across all signage and digital.
Ship a system nine sites can apply without a central design queue.
METHODS + INSIGHTS
Research before decisions
Methods
- 01Touchpoint audit across all nine sites, from car park to discharge letter.
- 02Interviews with patients, reception staff, and referring physicians.
- 03Endorsement-model workshops with clinic directors to test naming options.
- 04Contrast and wayfinding validation against accessibility standards.
Key insights
- 01Patients judged clinical competence by signage quality before meeting anyone.
- 02Referring physicians needed a group signal more urgently than patients did.
- 03Reception staff were the real brand surface, and they had no usable materials.
- 04An endorsement lockup let local names survive while the group became visible.
STRATEGY
The positioning decision
Endorse, then converge
Rather than a hard renaming, the system uses an endorsement structure: the local clinic name stays primary for two years with a Meridian endorsement lockup beneath it, then converges to Meridian-primary at the next signage cycle. That sequencing protected local trust, gave directors a timeline they agreed to, and spread capital cost across two budget years instead of one.
Endorse, then converge
Strategy artifacts that locked positioning before any visual exploration began.
VISUAL SYSTEM
Lockups, colour, type, rules
Primary lockup
01Group-level communication and the main website.
Endorsement
02Local clinic name primary with the group mark beneath.
Stacked
03Vertical signage, banners, and pull-up stands.
Icon only
04Wayfinding, app tiles, and staff identification badges.
Reversed
05Teal and charcoal surfaces across environment and print.
Meridian Teal
Group identity signal. Signage, lockups, primary actions.
Deep Teal
Type on light surfaces and all long-form headings.
Warm Sand
Waiting-area surfaces and print backgrounds.
Clinical White
Primary background for anything clinical or diagnostic.
Signal Amber
Wayfinding emphasis only. Never decorative.
Charcoal
Body copy, forms, and appointment correspondence.
Humanist Sans · 600
Signage and headings. Generous tracking for distance reading.
Meridian Health Group
Humanist Sans · 400
Patient letters and forms at 12pt minimum, 1.6 line height.
Your appointment is confirmed at the Northgate clinic.
Mono · 500
Reference numbers, room codes, and appointment identifiers.
REF_MH-4471 · ROOM 12
color.primary
Meridian teal (#0F766E) — group signal, never used for warnings.
color.support
Warm sand (#E8DFD3) — waiting areas and long-form print backgrounds.
type.display
Humanist sans at 600 weight — clinical without feeling cold.
contrast.min
All type meets 4.5:1 minimum, signage targets 7:1.
lockup.endorsement
Local name primary, Meridian mark at 40% scale beneath a hairline.
wayfinding.arrow
Single arrow weight across all nine sites, no directional variants.
[ IDENTITY_SPECIMENS ]
The system, up close.
Endorsement lockups
How each of the nine clinic names sits with the group mark during the transition.
Accessible palette
Palette with contrast ratios documented for every approved pairing.
Wayfinding system
One arrow weight, one type scale, and a fixed sign hierarchy across all sites.
BRAND IN USE
Applied in the real world
Application surfaces are where a system either holds or falls apart. These are the shots that prove the rules survive contact with production.
Clinic environment
Reception and waiting-area application using warm sand against clinical white.
Exterior signage
Endorsement lockup at building scale, tested for legibility from the car park.
Patient correspondence
Appointment letters and forms rebuilt around one template and one type scale.
MOTION
How the system moves
Digital lockup transitions from endorsement to group-primary over a 480ms cross-fade.
Wayfinding arrows animate only on touch kiosks, single 240ms translate, no easing flourish.
RESULTS
What changed after launch
GROUP_RECOGNITION
+61%
Patients correctly identifying their clinic as part of the network.
REFERRAL_RETENTION
+18%
Referrals staying inside the group after physician materials shipped.
ROLLOUT_TIME
9 sites
Applied in two budget cycles without a central design bottleneck.
NEXT
What I'd do next
01
Complete the convergence step at the next signage replacement cycle.
02
Extend the system to the patient portal and appointment reminders.
03
Train one brand owner per site to keep application consistent.
