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Jacobar Jacobar

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Recently, Jacober Creative was tapped by the Miami Homes For All founders to help craft an official name and a logo for one of their groups. They wanted a new identity to help rebrand what was formerly known as the Youth Homelessness Initiative in Miami-Dade County as a leader in the community.  And so the new H.O.M.Y. Collective, which stands for Helping Our Miami Youth, was born.

The H.O.M.Y. Collective is a collaborative of over 60 organizations and youth leaders working to prevent and end youth homelessness in Miami-Dade County. To help them stand out we worked on finding a catchy and familiar name with some fresh and dynamic branding to match.

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The Name:  We informally and very affectionately referred to the project in-house as the “HOMIE” project. The word homie (from "homeboy") is a slang term found in contemporary urban environments, whose origins generally trace to Mexican-American “Spanglish” from the late 19th century. The word "homeboy" means a male friend from back home. During the conceptual process, we reinvented the word as an acronym that has real meaning yet also some street cred.

“As a team, we loved that the word was slightly risqué,” says Paul Jacober, our creative director. “We knew it possibly could be divisive but we were confident that it would fly with the organization’s positive intention and its brand recognition capabilities.”

The acronym also represents the collective aspect of the project – each letter is distinct while part of a whole – just as the individual organizations involved with H.O.M.Y come together to form one supportive unit. 

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The Design: For the initial name and design, we took inspiration from the concept of the “collective”and explored the idea of the different and unexpected turns that life can take and that can lead to homelessness. We married that idea with a sense of place (Miami). What we came up with is a wavelike icon that ebbs and flows with radiating letters that form a strong, simple and readable typographic logo. The movement in the logo is also an abstract representation of life’s various challenges as well as the idea of moving forward.

“We’re very proud of the H.O.M.Y logo and can honestly says it is one of our new favorite creations, “ said Paul. “There's an element of simple geometry to it, like waves expanding in the ocean or rays of sun emanating from the sky.”


 

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Talking with the board about the goals of the organization and how their efforts are making a difference in Miami-Dade, we really wanted the logo to stand out from other homeless youth organizations and define the brand. Instead of sticking to design styles often seen with non-profit organizations, we wanted the branding to resonate with today’s youth; a little bit modern, definitely hip and very relatable.

“Presenting the idea to the H.O.M.Y Collective, who has a Board of approximately 10 people, was initially daunting, “ says Paul. “But ultimately, they unanimously supported our name & design solution.” (And we couldn’t be happier.)

We are so excited to partner with the H.O.M.Y Collective and are looking forward to being part of the organization as they work towards their goals in 2018. For now, we’re busy on the next phases of branding – including the launch of a website – and can’t wait to share more work soon.



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Looking for a Creative Agency? Are you a non-profit looking for a design agency to bring your organization to life? Jacober Creative is an award-winning creative firm that specializes in graphic design, branding, logos, digital marketing, websites and video production, and excels in the non-profit space. We are passionate, hard working and have the experience to help you create an organization that will stand the test of time. Let’s work together! [Contact Us]

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