American Foundation for the Blind

American Foundation for the Blind

As a national nonprofit with offices in five US cities, the American Foundation for the Blind (AFB) is the leader in expanding possibilities for more than 20 million Americans living with vision loss. Their award-winning programs address the needs of people with vision loss and their families. Integral to this mission is their online presence which serves to connect families to resources and support, guide the creation of more accessible products, educate vision loss professionals and to advocate for landmark legislation like the Americans with Disabilities Act.

In addition to AFB.org, a robust family of sites (FamilyConnect, VisionAware, Braille Bug, CareerConnect and AccessWorld) deliver a wealth of information to unique audience segments of within the 4.3 million annual AFB audience. Each of these brands grew independent of AFB or were acquired from other organizations and not fully integrated with the AFB brand family. This resulted in a disparate brand and engagement experience, creating audience silos where users were unaware of the other sites or their relation to AFB.

After extensive surveying of users, AFB realized they needed to recharge their brand and streamline their web presence. They approached Westfourth Communications to oversee an initiative that included updated positioning, a uniform brand aesthetic, website restructuring, and a strategic multisite brand deployment, all critical to the success of their overall outreach and advocacy efforts.

With reverence for AFB’s history, mission, and vision Westfourth rolled out a year-long plan to refine AFB’s digital brand experience. The keystone of this process was creating uniform branding standards, modernizing the AFB logo, and revitalizing logos of all AFB subbrands bringing disparate logos visually closer to the core brand. To further strengthen the brand and rein in unchecked use of color, we developed a cohesive palette to differentiate each subbrand, while integrating the strength of the core navy blue for continuity.

Once branding was tackled, a deep dive on website branding and a full content audit identified a number areas for improvement. The resulting reports included strategic opportunities and concrete tactics for building a seamless presence, creating community awareness and gaining stakeholder buy-in for AFB’s brand refresh.

Results:

Through an agile plan, Westfourth rejuvenated the AFB brand with a unified presence and updated identity assets. The streamlining and rebranding process was a powerful opportunity to engage and grow AFB’s multi-site audience, allowing AFB to increase cross-channel traffic and page views while lowering the overall website bounce by making the website more accessible and easy to navigate.