Our Rebranding

 

Unifying an organization that represents an entire intricate community, while honoring the past and creating an infrastructure for the future.

After almost a year in the making, we’re rolled out a fresh and innovative brand identity to represent FIPPOA and all members of our Pines community. We’ve also unveiled our new website so that everyone—from Pines residents, renters and businesses, to our Pines-based cultural organizations and Pines visitors—can stay on top of what’s happening in the Pines.

 
 

The Challenge

As a local governing body of Fire Island Pines, an iconic LGBTQ+ seaside town and destination, FIPPOA has worked tirelessly to enhance the quality of life in the community yet the recognition of its identity and understanding of its work among the residents and visitors were severely lacking.

FIPPOA’s primary objectives in creating a new graphic identity and developing a new website are to create a unified look for the organization and a memorable user experience. FIPPOA’s current brand suffers from a lack of strong visual identity and inconsistent application. Our goals were to have:

  • An appealing identity with the consistency of color palettes, fonts, and visual identity (logos and graphics)

  • A strong concept that reflects the Pines community

  • A way of conveying a strong brand that encompasses all aspects of FIPPOA, its properties, its affiliated non-profit organizations, annual events, etc.

  • FIPPOA’s previous website was outdated and underutilized.

 

Why would FIPPOA rebrand?

We’re not just an organization for property owners—FIPPOA is here for the entire community. Our new brand embodies our values in all our actions:

  • Honesty

  • Fairness

  • Common Sense

  • Participation

  • Respect

  • Neighborliness

  • Our Commitment to Inclusion and Social Equity

 

What was the process?

Spring of 2021, FIPPOA issued an RFP for rebranding FIPPOA. We received 14 strong proposals to create a new corporate identity for FIPPOA and a new website. In August 2021, the board wholeheartedly endorsed the selection of Will Kim Creative, a BIPOC and LGBTQ-owned company led by Sungtae (Will) Kim, a long-time Pines community member. The FIPPOA working team was FIPPOA board members and Co-Chairs Chris Mai and Tami Haussman and community manager Karen McCutcheon. Chris Mai led the strategic initiative as the Creative Director and Program Manager.

The Outcome

With this design language, we hope to establish an entirely new brand that boldly embodies FIPPOA’s values: honesty, fairness, common sense, participation, respect, and neighborliness.

Built on the new brand system with a new messaging strategy, this enables the FIPPOA and The Pines Foundation to present to the world stage a professional and chic brand that can seamlessly communicate and interface with our local city, town, state, and legislative entities.

The new website is a friendly and welcoming portal for residents, businesses, and visitors alike. To create a single source of all Pines-related information, we consolidated all FIPPOA-owned entities, and leveraged traffic from other FIPPOA affiliates under one site.