Improving healthcare is complex work. Too often, the teams doing it are overlooked. The Institute for Healthcare Delivery Design (IHDD) at the University of Illinois Chicago connects healthcare, research, and social service systems to better serve all people. Their interdisciplinary team partners with healthcare and civic organizations to address entrenched challenges. Despite their clear impact, they recognized their brand lacked the clarity, flexibility, and usability to match.

Span was engaged to design a visual identity that elevates IHDD’s presence and reflects the future they are shaping. Our brief: create a confident, adaptable system to make IHDD more visible—while equipping their team with consistent tools for communication. Span partner Nick Adam led the design for IHDD’s new identity: a modular, flexible system that adapts seamlessly across applications, from full name to abbreviation.

The system reinforces clarity and care. A monospace logotype and bespoke icon system ensure consistency and enable agile communication. Equal weight and rounded details balance neutrality with warmth, signaling empathy without sacrificing rigor. Rounded, tab-like forms convey accessibility while delivering a distinctive asset system. In motion, they reveal a cellular-like multiplicity that evokes progress, connection, and interdependence. Inspired by Post-it notes, the color palette nods to iteration, collaboration, and co-creation. Optimistic yet grounded, it reflects a process-driven mindset and invites dialogue. Photography centers humanity, highlighting moments of collaboration and close-ups of hands at work, underscoring that healthcare is personal and that IHDD’s mission is rooted in people, not just systems.

IHDD’s new identity brings clarity to complexity. It sets them apart from traditional healthcare and design agencies, establishing their expertise and their role as a connector across sectors. The system flexes seamlessly across research, workshops, and public engagement, giving IHDD’s team the tools to lead with confidence and purpose.