Case Study
The Legal Aid Society
The Legal Aid Society has ensured equal justice for all New Yorkers for more than a century.
Project Summary
Strong Representation for a Pioneer in Social Justice Law
For 150 years, The Legal Aid Society has been a part of the fabric of New York communities, providing unparalleled support and representation for all New Yorkers. As the largest law firm in NYC and the nation’s largest public defense and civil legal services provider, The Legal Aid Society has more than 2,000 staff members working in every borough of New York City. This size, scale, and history meant that The Legal Aid Society needed a more focused message, stronger branding, and a better website for its team to unite behind a shared understanding and vision.
Starting in January 2017—just as the Trump administration began targeting the communities and people that The Legal Aid Society stands with—we spent six years engaging the organization in a holistic process to create clarity, unite their people, and communicate their purpose. Together, we created a new brand strategy, messaging platform, visual identity, communications design system, and website that connects people to The Legal Aid Society’s iconic brand.
Focus Areas
Related Services
At a Glance
Showing Up Across NYC: Messaging is rooted in the Legal Aid Society’s community relationships and earned trust, positioning the organization as a fierce defender for all New Yorkers.
Making Visual Connections: The new brand visually connects people to all of New York City’s boroughs and LAS’s offices, using NYC’s iconic subway lines as color references that celebrate the vibrancy of the city.
Reflecting Over A Century of History: The Legal Aid Society’s new website establishes its deep credibility and expertise, while providing clear pathways for users to take the actions they need quickly.
Brand Activation: We developed new brand swag that builds excitement and celebrates all of the ways the brand shows up out in the world across NYC’s boroughs.
discovery & strategy
Building a Deeper, Shared Understanding of the Brand
We started by spending the first few months gaining valuable perspectives from both inside and outside the organization. For internal research, we conducted a communications audit to establish a baseline, then led strategy workshops with diverse representatives from The Legal Aid Society’s many offices and practice areas. Interviews and a survey of over 2,000 staff members added to our depth and breadth of understanding.
For external research, we gained insight into external perceptions and audience relationships by conducting interviews with clients, partners, government officials, and others. We then placed The Legal Aid Society’s brand in the context of other public interest law nonprofits by analyzing their branding—gaining insight needed to strengthen positioning and differentiation. We translated this research into a brand strategy and messaging platform that tells The Legal Aid Society’s story and shares its impact, while speaking to the serious systemic and everyday issues its clients face.
Visual identity
Creating a Design System That Spans Practice Areas & Boroughs
For visual identity design, we focused our strategy on The Legal Aid Society’s top strategic priorities. First, present a strong, straightforward brand. Second, emphasize their presence throughout all boroughs. Third, highlight individual practice areas while expressing unity. And fourth, reflect New York City’s diversity.
The Legal Aid Society’s master logo is black-and-white, just like the law should be. It boldly makes the case for the brand, avoiding unnecessary decoration and getting straight to the point. Borough and practice-area sub-brands establish a clear brand architecture with strong type that is easy to read. We also pulled inspiration from the city itself, using the brand’s color system to reference NYC’s iconic subway lines—an equitable, connecting force for every New Yorker.
UX design
Strengthening the Brand & Increasing Access to 25 Years of Research
Simultaneous to brand development, our digital team designed a strategy to transform how The Legal Aid Society engages audiences online. Two of our top priorities were to tell a compelling brand narrative and to deliver value through online service design. We began with internal research, auditing The Legal Aid Society’s website and collaborating with staff to understand the role it plays—and could play—in supporting operations.
Field visits to offices and courthouses informed the user personas and UX workshops, which defined audience-centered content and functionality across the website.
Field visits to offices and courthouses informed the user personas and UX workshops, which defined audience-centered content and functionality across the website.
“The Legal Aid Society came to Constructive with the ambitious goal of strengthening our large organization by developing a brand that tells our story, engages multiple audiences, and unites our practice areas, offices, and our people. Their team embraced our complexity and helped make sense of it to craft branding that truly represents who we are—highlighted by our new website, an invaluable resource to the clients and communities we serve that demonstrates our expertise and helps drive our advocacy and fundraising.”
Sharon Kleinhandler
Director of Development, The Legal Aid Society
website design
Designing an Online Brand Experience That Stands Strong for Equal Justice
The Legal Aid Society’s new website needed to reflect its updated messaging and branding to create an online experience that’s equal to the organization’s mission and impact. The new LegalAidNYC.org represents their brand with bold type, vibrant colors, and a strong gridded aesthetic—just like the Legal Aid Society’s defense and the NYC roots they represent.
Leading with the organization’s tagline, “Justice in Every Borough,” the website immediately positions The Legal Aid Society as a tireless defender and elevates its many services, events, and deep impact across New York City. Strong design grids and large headlines make a clear statement. Type hierarchies create easily scannable pages and make volumes of information accessible—highlighted by the service design-driven “Get Help” section. And the brand’s subway-inspired color system combines with inviting imagery to represent the diverse people of the Legal Aid Society and NYC—a key strategic priority for a brand that stands as a beacon to anyone overwhelmed by an oppressive, impersonal system of justice.
resource center
Making Legal Support Easy for New Yorkers to Access
A top priority for The Legal Aid Society’s new website was to make it more useful and valuable to the clients and communities the organization serves. Not only would doing so empower people caught up in the justice system, but it would also reduce the burden and overhead of inbound calls from clients in need of help.
We created an encyclopedic “Get Help” section that supports clients and communities by providing valuable information and resources for all of the issue areas that The Legal Aid Society helps with. And to demystify the confusing legal landscape, the “Terms You Might Hear Glossary” helps explain jargon that clients might hear when dealing with complex legal issues.
content strategy
A Digital Storytelling Platform That Celebrates Staff and Shares Their Stories
A key pillar of our brand strategy was to unite The Legal Aid Society’s staff with a shared vision and elevate the many voices of its passionate and dedicated people. We created a digital storytelling strategy called “A Day in the Life,” which provides staff with a platform to share what “Justice in Every Borough” means to them and fosters pride in the mission.
The Legal Aid Society’s commitment to diversity and inclusion is also given a spotlight, elevating one of its core values and attracting top talent to join the organization. To make the brand more accessible, a complete staff directory makes it easy for audiences to get in touch with any of The Legal Aid Society’s experts.
A new digital storytelling platform brings The Legal Aid Society’s mission to life through “A Day in the Life” stories of the team that make its work more accessible and welcoming for clients and new talent alike.
digital campaigns
Developing a Digital Platform for Online Fundraising, Advocacy, and Action
A key part of The Legal Aid Society’s work involves community action and organizing, taking on both the big issues and individual injustices that hang over so many New Yorkers. Central to these efforts are campaigns and fundraising, which The Legal Aid Society powers online using Blackbaud Luminate. We designed a flexible system of attention-grabbing calls-to-action throughout the website that encourages audiences to support The Legal Aid Society’s campaigns and work—whether that’s by lending their voice, lending a hand, or making a donation.
brand rollout
A Plan to Ensure a Smooth and Successful Brand Launch
The Legal Aid Society is the only legal justice organization that serves all five boroughs of New York City. That means in each borough, they have multiple offices for each practice area, amounting to 2,000+ staff members. In addition, The Legal Aid Society is trusted by countless government officials, media outlets, and other law partners to provide expertise. To ensure that all key stakeholders were informed about the new brand and website, we created a detailed brand rollout plan that documented the announcement needs and methods for each key audience group.
We developed Brand FAQs so leadership in each borough felt empowered to answer any staff questions that came up about the new brand. We also updated many of their key internal documents with the new brand and developed new pieces of collateral to support the external brand launch. This included everything from T-shirts to pens to Know Your Rights brochures. The website also first went live to members of The Legal Aid Society’s staff (we called it a “soft launch”) so they had the opportunity to provide feedback before it launched to the rest of the world.
