Rare Disease Foundation

Client

The Rare Disease Foundation (RDF) was founded in Vancouver, British Columbia in February 2008. RDF was launched by rare disease patients, caregivers, researchers, and practitioners who shared the same sense of urgency and values about access to resources and research for rare disease patients and their families. Today, the foundation serves a global community with research funding, resources and community programs.

The Rare Disease Foundation’s mission is to transform the lives of Canadians and global citizens living with a rare disease by revolutionizing awareness, developing innovative cures through its research programs, and providing resources through community and clinical support channels.

Process

Building a brand for an organization that dealt with the complexities of rare diseases required more than just a nice logo. 

We wanted to build an architecture of empathy and efficiency that would translate the RDF’ core values into a collaborative branding strategy that clarified its voice and vision. We didn't develop this in a vacuum. By interviewing your internal teams and external community members, we ensured the new brand wasn't a "mask" but a mirror of the RDF’s  actual impact. 

Honoring its holistic approach and diverse community needs, we couldn’t look at "customers." We instead needed to investigate an ecosystem of stakeholders: researchers, patients, families, and practitioners to find the common threads between them. We realized that while their languages differ (clinical vs. personal), their priorities were the same: empathy and action. Instead of describing problems, the RDF would be facilitating solutions.

Cover page of a document titled 'Rare Disease Foundation Brand Guidelines' with a close-up illustration of a yellow-orange sphere with blue-green rod-shaped structures protruding from it, set against a dark purple background.
Design guidelines for the Rare Disease Foundation logo, showing the logo's size, spacing, and clear space requirements.
Guidelines for logo exceptions showing three variations of the Rare Disease Foundation logo: purple with yellow circle, teal with yellow circle, gray with gray circle, with text describing color substitutions and monochrome version rules.
A guide showing five primary colors with their print and web color information, including Pantone, CMYK, HEX, and RGB codes: dark purple, red, yellow, teal, and light blue.
Sample typography guide page with sections on primary typeface, circular standard medium font, and characters including uppercase, lowercase, and numbers with special characters.
Typography style guide page for 'Primary Typeface II', featuring the font 'Circular Air Light'. Includes the uppercase and lowercase alphabet, accented characters, and numbers with symbols, along with a description of the font created by Swiss design

Project

We translated the RDF’s operational values into visual benchmarks. Our goal was to create a brand that felt as "seed-capital fast" as your funding model.

  • Clean, modern typography and "momentum-based" graphic elements that suggest speed and progress.

  • A palette that balances professional credibility with warmth, using photography that highlights the agency of patients.

  • A modular design system that works across different languages and digital platforms without losing its core identity.

How should a stakeholder feel when they encounter the Rare Disease Foundation in the market? We designed the brand to evoke three specific feelings:

  • Empowered (The Patient/Caregiver): A sense that they aren't just recipients of care, but active decision-makers. The brand feels like a platform they own.

  • Confident (The Researcher): A sense of professional rigor. The visual identity signals that the foundation is a serious, sophisticated partner capable of managing high-level R&D.

Urgency (The Donor): A feeling that their contribution won't be caught in red tape. The "Shovel-Ready" nature of your work is reflected in a brand that feels lean, active, and ready to move.

Brand guidelines for Rare Disease Foundation showing a white t-shirt and a navy drawstring bag, both featuring the foundation's logo with a red vertical line, a yellow circle, and lowercase text.
Collage of healthcare and pediatric scenes, including children with medical staff, a microscope, a temperature check, a toy ambulance, a stethoscope, and a close-up of a virus model.
An illustration showing two distinct scenes. On the left, a woman walks outdoors among abstract orange trees, reaching out to touch a large orange silhouette of a person. She has long hair, wears a pink top and blue pants, and carries a backpack. On