Serve LA

Creative Direction / Brand Strategy / Brand Identity System / Campaign / Brand Book

Serve LA is a non-profit that provides meals, recovery, and holistic support to the unseen among us in the city.

SITUATION
Serve LA is a dedicated non-profit organization that is committed to transforming the city of Los Angeles by guiding marginalized individuals from states of suffering to flourishing. They achieve this through providing meals, recovery services, and holistic support to those often overlooked or unseen within the city.
PROBLEM
Despite their efforts, houselessness remains a significant issue within Los Angeles, with an estimated 66,000 individuals experiencing houselessness on any given night. The problem has been further compounded in recent years with an increasing number of individuals experiencing houselessness for the first time. Serve LA approached us with the need for a brand identity system and brand campaign that would help them raise necessary funds and expand their volunteer program.
SOLUTION
Our strategy involved peeling back the layers to truly understand the heart of Serve LA; to see their "guests" as just that - guests. These are people with dignity who are going through a difficult time. Society often disregards or quickly passes by these individuals, leading us to the word "unseen." This motif guided us through the identity design and brand campaign effort. The goal was simple: to make the unseen seen, not as a problem to fix, but as people, just like anyone else, who need compassion. To introduce Serve LA to the Los Angeles community, we produced a campaign video to kick off fundraising and expand Serve LA's volunteer program, showing their guests as people with hopes and dreams, not problems to solve.
RESULTS
Since the launch of the campaign donations increased by 200% and volunteers have increased by 73%.
COLLABORATORS
Director & DP: Josua Fischer
Editor: Ashton Trujillo
Photographer: Evelyn Garibay-Solis

Collage of promotional posters for Serve LA, featuring diverse portraits of people and bold text with the word 'SERVE LA' and 'SERVE' in various styles and colors on dark background.

Poster of a woman named Michelle with her eyes closed and her hand on her chest, displayed outdoors on a city sidewalk.

A collection of four social media story posts on a black background. The first post is blue with a photo of a young man, and says "I'm not What I Have" with additional text about his name and location. The second post is peach with a photo of two children and is titled "Hygiene Kits Campaign." The third post is orange with a photo of a young man with a flower in his hair, and says "I'm not a problem but a person." The fourth post is yellow with a photo of a group of people in a meeting, titled "Volunteer Interest Meeting."

Colorful film strips with the word 'RESERVED' and portraits of various people on a black background.

Yellow A-frame sign on brick sidewalk that reads, 'SERVELLA. If this sign was a person without a home, most people wouldn’t even bother to look down. Please look our guests in the eyes and say

Odd Notion immediately impressed us with their expertise. They made the process easy and enjoyable—explaining their approach and providing guidance through every step of the process. As an organization that has a lot of stakeholders, they were able to navigate our various values and unify them into a cohesive direction and purpose, providing an end product we were proud to have represent us and clearly communicate our identity. Their abilities to foresee real-life usage of the brand, develop creative approaches, and push artistic boundaries are invaluable!

– Heather Fischer, Communications Director at Serve LA