Connect the Dots

Established in 2007, One Medical is an independent, premium, primary care provider in the U.S.. What that means is that instead of going to your usual doctor’s office that typically looks like you are going to leave more sick than when you first came in and that operates more like a FedEx dispatch facility than a place where people are cared for, you go to shiny pretty offices, you can properly book appointments online and in an app, and you get quality care. Becoming a patient with them requires an additional membership fee on top of the health insurance you are already paying for but in return they “offer you the innovative digital health tools and value-added services that make One Medical unique.” One Medical has 60 locations in eight major cities, expanding to a ninth one in 2019, and has taken this opportunity to introduce a new identity designed by San Francisco, CA-based Moniker in collaboration with their in-house team.

Moniker worked collaboratively with the internal design team to rebuild One Medical’s identity system from the ground up. We began with an extensive brand audit and competitive analysis, identifying key equities in the existing identity and opportunities for expansion. Each element of the identity was then aligned with the company’s focus of delivering people-centered care.

The result is a sophisticated brand that is equally premium and human. A refined logotype, simplified color palette, and expressive typographic system laid the foundation of the brand, while intimate photography of real people and hand-drawn illustrations brought a personal touch to expand the visual system. A comprehensive set of guidelines provided a flexible foundation for the brand to evolve with the company as they expand into new markets and services.

Moniker provided text

The old logo was already fairly good and had established a more premium feel than most doctor practices, resembling a healthcare insurance company more than an on-the-ground group of doctors. The wordmark was nice and the icon was (and still is) ambiguous but decent — its color palette was the one thing that felt cheap. The new logo is a beautiful evolution, making it better in every aspect, starting with the size relationship of the icon to the wordmark, which makes the icon feel more elegant and dignified, like it doesn’t need to shout anymore. Based on Ginto by Dinamo — with whom Moniker collaborated on the development of the logo — the wordmark now feels much more unique and even luxurious, which is aided by the lush dark green color. It’s such a great progression to the logo… it reminds me, in philosophy, of the Lufthansa redesign.

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Look at those business cards. So nice.

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The identity introduces a perfectly conceived and art directed set of photographs with a beautiful range of colors and that literally add a human touch without feeling cliché, cloying, or cheesy. These integrate seamlessly with the dark green brand color, the logo, the icon on its own, and the supporting serif, Grilli Type’s GT Super, which was subtly customized for this job. This is the only element that I’m not 100% convinced by and it’s because, at times, the display version of GT Super overpowers the other elements as it’s a typeface that demands a lot of attention — the text version is a little less dramatic. Still, this is all really nice.

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The identity also uses illustration and the plan is to use different illustrators over the years as opposed to building a single library for the rest of eternity. For now, this set by Charlotte Trounce is great, avoiding the trendy, mono-thickness, flat approach and instead introducing something that’s warm, fuzzy, and has all the feels. The color palette is in tune with the photography and, in the same way, works seamlessly with the dark green and the rest of the elements.

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Overall, this is tremendous redesign that better supports the premium offering of the company and makes it feel like it’s worth the investment and make those co-pays a little more bearable. A little.