With the Brooklyn-based branding firm Hyperakt, Peraza has developed new brands for the Ford Foundation, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Pete for America 2020, and, most recently, The New York Community Trust.
When The Trust approached us, I was thrilled. As a long-time New Yorker, I have a deep love for this city and its people. The chance to help evolve our local community foundation’s brand—in what would be its first update in decades—to feel more representative of and accessible to all New Yorkers was a dream project. With 100 years of local experience and a growing team of experts, The Trust is better poised than ever to meet the monumental needs and opportunities in our region.
Because we specialize in working with complex organizations, we knew that speaking with as many people as possible from The Trust’s diverse community, including staff and board members, donors, and nonprofit leaders, would be key. After many conversations and workshops exploring visual metaphors together, we landed on a core brand idea: For New York. Forever. The metaphor of The Trust as a throughline from past to future emerged to crystallize The Trust’s persistent role as a beating heart for our beloved region.
Donors who create permanent charitable legacies with The Trust provide a powerful gift to help the foundation address our region’s most pressing issues. These gifts are invested so they can make grants while growing to meet future needs—forever! It was by weaving this notion of “forever” through all of the issue areas, communities, and regions The Trust works in that we were able to start to communicate the breadth and depth of the foundation’s impact.
The new branding also unifies The Trust’s NYC, Long Island, and Westchester offices and streamlines how we understand its many collaborative funds, awards, and special projects.
Every project comes with its own set of surprises. Working with The Trust, I was most surprised by the willingness of its staff and board to engage in such a significant transformation of the foundation’s identity. Big changes involving your name, language, and visual identity are not things to take lightly when you’re a 100-year-old organization. It was heartening to experience the thoughtfulness and passion with which everyone considered these courageous moves. The result is a brand that feels more authentically like The Trust and the region it serves than ever before.
I’m proud of the work that we did together and that the new brand accomplishes what we set out to do—create a welcoming, joyful mark that invites all New Yorkers, and New Yorkers at heart, to give together. The Trust democratizes philanthropy, and the new brand brings this to life.
