Having operated in Blue Island Illinois for 103 years, St. Francis’ Hospital was facing bankruptcy. It was taken over and renamed MetroSouth Medical Center, and the investors came to MSDS to handle this extensive rebranding project. I worked on the identity design and on the brand applications with Ryan Reynolds and Matthew Schwartz primarily.

This interim mini-site was designed for the brand launch with the goal of helping Blue Island residents become familiar with the hospital and the new facilities that were being put in place there. The design followed on from an employee intranet designed by Ryan which handled internal procedures and requirements for the hospitals staff.

The site had to also appeal to medical staff such as doctors and nurses as the new administration had begun an aggressive recruitment program to attract top staff back to working in the hospital. The design elements, such as the color and typographic palettes were drawn from the interim brand guidelines which we had put in place following approval of the identity design.

The clients did not want the site to appear too ‘polished’ or finalised as they were planning on designing and launching a more extensive site in the following months. To achieve this, I kept the layout and overall styling quite minimal and direct, emphasising the approachable nature of the new brand while also utilising the vibrant new color palette to bring some personality and warmth to the design. The is very much an example of content-driven design, and in every page it is clear where the important information is and how to navigate to the relevant next step.

This site design won a prestigious Graphic Design USA web design award in the website & interface design category. It has since been replaced by the full site online.