COVID Care Force
In early 2020, as the pandemic reshaped daily life, a small Olathe, Kansas-based nonprofit launched with a clear mission and almost nothing else: no budget, no brand direction, and no time to waste. COVID Care Force needed an identity that could do the impossible: look credible enough to attract donors and partners, while signaling that not a dollar had been wasted getting there.
The central design challenge wasn't aesthetic, it was strategic. How do you balance the weight of a global emergency with the warmth of community response? The answer was deliberate restraint.
Red was chosen not despite its association with danger, but because of it. In a moment defined by urgency, a brand that softened that reality would have rung false. The mark unifies two defining realities of the moment, the visual language of the virus and the global reach of volunteer response, into a single, cohesive symbol. The typography was selected for the same reason: personality without ornamentation, clarity without coldness.
The result was a brand that looked like it had been there all along. Built from nothing, on the day it was needed most, and carried through two years of active use into its evolution into Global Care Force.
Client
COVID Care Force
Year
2020
Project Details
Creative Direction
Art Direction
Logo Design
Graphic Design
Website Design
2020 Impact Report
2020 Impact Report
Sharable social media assets
Logo Exploration
The process began with a single directive: welcoming, not clinical. With the pandemic already generating enough anxiety, the brand needed to signal safety and humanity without flinching from the gravity of the moment. The systematic design thinking of Massimo Vignelli, particularly his non-profit work of the 1970s and 80s, provided the north star: refined simplicity as a form of credibility.
© Jeremy Burns 2025