A young woman with a smiling baby in her arms, with the new branding system developed for West End Residences, applied in the lower left corner.

Embracing the Community and Raising Awareness

Helping vulnerable homeless populations live life forward

  • Unified population-based legacy branding under a new name and slogan
  • Developed distinctive identity and design system
  • Designed new website to showcase the agency’s mission and services
  • Provided support for launch and conversion period
The old logos for West End Residences
The new logo: a distinctive identity and design system. A new name "Homeward NYC" and a new tagline "Live life forward" were created to express the common goal of residents, city agencies, and donors. New logo developed: a distinctive identity and design system. A new name "Homeward NYC" and a new tagline "Live life forward" were created to express the common goal of residents, city agencies, and donors.

West End Residences, a New York City HDFC agency, offers supportive housing and wraparound services for the city’s formerly homeless older adults, young mothers and their children, and LGBTQ young people. Over the past 30 years, the agency has helped transform the lives of more than 12,700 residents, including 7,500 children, by helping them find the stability they need and build the skills necessary as they transition into the next phase of their lives.

The color palette and color combination developed for Homeward NYC
A man wearing sunglasses in front of a computer screen raising awareness.
images depicting the tagline "Live life forward": a young woman with a smiling baby in her arms, an interracial group of young men, and an older African-American man.

MBLM’s analysis uncovered that the agency’s name—West End Residences—and the population-based branding for programs and housing sites—”Intergenerational” and “True Colors”—compromised its ability to present a unified face to key stakeholders and the city at large. As a result, MBLM recommended bringing the agency together under a new name that would create greater awareness of all it does on behalf of the city’s underserved homeless populations.

The Homeward NYC name and the “Live life forward” tagline express the common goal of the residents, city agencies, and donors, which is to kick-start the journey that will help homeless populations achieve the independence required to lead full and productive lives.

An orange Flagpole banner with the Homeward NYC logo in white, showing how the design system could be represented.
a woman crossing a street with a purple shopping bag with the Homeward NYC logo in white, showing how the design system could be represented.
Examples of business cards showing how to apply the brand identity developed for Homeward NYC

Related Work