Ritter Center

Helping the Homeless of Marin County:

Ritter Center is a non-profit organization serving individuals and families experiencing homelessness and economic instability. Citizen Best was tasked to refresh Ritter Center’s website and provide ongoing branding and design support as well as launch a capital campaign to raise funds for a new home that will expand their medical and mental health services, housing services, food assistance, and seasonal programs.

Website Refresh:

With an outdated website that had limited information, was difficult for the organization to update, and lacked an inviting aesthetic, Citizen Best took on the challenge of a website refresh. We blended colorful illustration with photography that featured real Ritter Center clients as the “faces” of the brand. The contrasting bright graphics with the black and white photography elicits an emotional connection from the website user, often someone seeking to volunteer, donate, or discover services for a loved one. We built out more subpages in order to detail the full breadth of services, and developed a templated design system so that the client could easily manage and update content, as needed.

Ongoing Design Support:

We pulled through the new look onto stanchions, sandwich boards, van wraps, brochures, and a multi-page quarterly newsletter. In addition, we created collateral and marketing assets for Ritter Center’s fundraising efforts.

Building Hope, Healing Lives:

After 40+ years on Ritter Street, Ritter Center is moving to a new space in 2024. To assist in the cost of the renovations that will allow for a marked expansion of services that address the unmet needs of families facing homelessness, Ritter Center needed to launch a capital campaign with the goal of raising $6 million dollars. We first came up with the campaign name—“Building Hope, Healing Lives”—followed by a sub-brand identity, including a logo lockup, which had to integrate with Ritter Center’s overall brand. We then executed all the supporting print, outdoor and digital marketing materials.

Impact:

We remain Ritter Center’s go-to branding and marketing agency for all of its asset creation and deliverables. Everything we touch supports Ritter Center’s mission “to prevent and resolve homelessness and improve the health, dignity and well-being of people living in poverty in Marin County by providing high-quality, culturally sensitive, easily accessible medical care and social services.” Our work has helped Ritter Center serve approximately 3,000 people in a given year. And with the increase of economic instability during the pandemic and today’s inflation, that number continues to rise. With the move to a larger health center, Ritter Center will be able to provide services to more families, including children. As a result, our branding, copy and design balances, across all touch points, a sense of urgency with the hope of a brighter future.

For Citizen Best, it’s important that we support the people who are doing good work. We believe strongly in the efforts of Ritter Center, and appreciate the opportunity to help the community through collaboration.