For over a decade, Trailhead has been the central hub for Boise’s business community.
But after a tumultuous year bearing a location move and high-profile leadership changes, that tumult needed a public-facing reframe.
And while we were at it, we changed the way they see their organization from the ground up.
For the past several years, Trailhead had seen what seemed to be steady waters.
But in our initial research, we uncovered a horrifying discovery: most of their audience thought they were a sponsor of the flagship event they organized.
Trailhead has contributed millions of dollars of funding directly to local businesses, boasts the enthusiastic support of the Mayor, and has helped launch hundreds of success stories. But you’d never know it from their messaging.
Trailhead’s service structure was poorly understood, their history vague, and their new leadership team unknown.
Our new foundation reframed them as a nonprofit institution, with a new service hierarchy that reframed even the Trailhead team itself’s vision.
Sourcing authentic maps from Boise’s past dating back to the 1890s became central to the aesthetic, with inspiration from Vignelli’s NYC subway lines to visually illustrate how Trailhead’s programs connect.
Our rebrand campaign, “Trailhead, Redrawn,” launched alongside our new website, brand, membership structure, and messaging framework.
Here’s the impact in their own words.
“Trailhead carries over a decade’s worth of stories from Boise’s startup ecosystem. To my wonder, David learned them in a single summer. He connected the dots and found the story woven within our messaging, our imagery, and our visual aesthetic.
Entrepreneurship at its heart is good storytelling and problem solving, and working with David felt like a personal masterclass in both.”
-Jacob Grinwis, Executive Director of Trailhead
And it didn’t stop there – we rebuilt the public perception of that flagship event too. Check it out here.
