A healthcare brand built to earn patient trust

How we helped Harrison Healthcare define its identity, align its leadership, and give every department clear brand guidelines to work from

Client: Harrison Healthcare
Founder: Don Copeman, creator of Copeman Healthcare Centre
Format: Brand identity, brand guidelines, and launch applications for business cards, letterhead, and brochures
Audiences: Patients and prospective patients, clinicians and staff, and Harrison’s leadership and marketing teams
Our role: Branding workshop, brand strategy, visual identity, brand guidelines, photography direction, and brand rollout support

Overview

In healthcare, trust often forms before the first appointment. A patient opens a brochure, visits a website, or picks up a business card, and quietly decides whether this is a place that will take good care of them.
Harrison Healthcare faced that moment with an unusual starting point. Its founder, Don Copeman, had built Copeman Healthcare Centre, which was later acquired by TELUS Health. Harrison needed to stand on its own as a new organization, with its own identity, while carrying the values of trust, care, and inclusivity into everything it put in front of patients.
The request was a new brand. Underneath that sat a harder question: how do you help a leadership team agree on who they are, then make that identity hold steady across every department, every material, and every patient interaction?
We began with a branding workshop to define Harrison’s core values and audience before any design started. From there, we built a visual identity and comprehensive brand guidelines, along with applied examples so the team could use the brand with confidence from day one.

Case Study: Harrison Healthcare Branding Guidelines

Just as a healthcare provider like Harrison prioritizes patient experience, we, at Aurora, focus on creating viewer experiences that resonate emotionally and intellectually. Harrison’s brand isn’t simply about the services they offer; it’s defined by the connections they forge.

Let’s walk through how we helped Harrison Healthcare create a powerful brand identity that reflects their values and connects with their target audience.

Deep industry knowledge

We understand the importance of branding in today’s competitive market. A strong brand not only sets you apart from your competitors but also creates an emotional connection with your audience. This is especially crucial for healthcare providers like Harrison, where trust and empathy are essential components of their services.

We were in the unique position of having a deep knowledge of who Harrison Healthcare was and what they needed due to our history in the healthcare industry and the past work we have done with Harrison’s founder, Don Copeman.

Harrison Healthcare was founded by Copeman, the creator of Copeman Healthcare Centre. Following the acquisition of Copeman Healthcare by TELUS Health, Don Copeman initiated Harrison’s establishment. Aurora was once again engaged to craft and oversee the brand.

With this in mind, the goal for Harrison was to set it apart as a unique entity from its predecessor, so our approach remained the same. We started with a comprehensive branding workshop to establish the brand’s core values and identify its target audience.

Crafting a brand with emotional appeal

Crafting a timeless design requires a visual identity that lasts. For Harrison, Aurora focused on simplicity, functionality, and classic looks to keep the branding effective for years to come. This reflects Harrison’s values of trust, care, and inclusivity, staying adaptable in healthcare changes.

Aurora’s design style for Harrison is mature and warm, ideal for high-end healthcare. The colour palette balances sophistication and approachability, building trust and comfort for patients. We chose timeless fonts and high-quality photos to create a welcoming atmosphere, showcasing Harrison’s compassion and professionalism. Including diverse demographics mirrors Harrison’s commitment to inclusivity and serving various markets.

The leaf element at Harrison symbolizes the intricate clinician-patient relationship journey, embodying growth, progress, and the brand’s message of evolution and strength.

Photography is key for Harrison’s brand, showing real people and moments to make it relatable and inspiring. It conveys health, vitality, community, and support, creating a strong, empathetic, and aspirational brand image. Harrison currently uses a mix of stock imagery and custom photography in a way that perfectly captures their identity.

The branding guideline

Branding guidelines are essential for maintaining consistency and strengthening the brand. Aurora provided Harrison with comprehensive guidelines that include logo usage, colour palette, typography, messaging tone and voice, photography style, and design elements.

To launch the new brand successfully, we created examples of how the brand would be applied across various materials such as business cards, letterheads, and brochures. This ensured that Harrison’s team had a clear understanding of the brand’s visual representation and were able to take the guidelines and put them directly to use across the company.

Branding guidelines are not only essential for the marketing team, but act as clear direction to all departments on how their visual communication should reflect the brand. This consistency is key in creating a strong and recognizable brand identity that resonates with their target audience.

The power of branding

At Aurora, we empower brands to surpass traditional marketing boundaries, offering unparalleled opportunities for engagement through dynamic visual communication design. Our team collaborates to create immersive narratives that spotlight our clients’ unique offerings, whether it’s through showcasing healthcare services or any other industry initiatives. We envision the client journey to be just as extraordinary as the destination, mirroring Harrison Healthcare’s patient care philosophy.

Aurora’s ability to refine complex concepts into compelling visual stories has bridged the gap between our mission and our audience. They have played a crucial role in refining our brand’s vision, enabling us to articulate a narrative that resonates with our audience and amplifies our impact. Their collaborative approach in establishing brand guidelines and distilling our ideas into a clear, unified direction proved invaluable. They are adept at guiding leadership teams, helping us navigate the process of brand identity creation with ease and clarity.

– Gail Findlay-Shirras,
Senior Director, Marketing

What this project shows

Many healthcare organizations already deliver excellent care. The gap is often that their brand doesn’t yet show it, so patients have to take quality on faith before they’ve seen any proof.

Three things made this project work:

Agreement before design. The branding workshop gave Harrison’s leadership a shared view of their values and audience. That made every later decision easier, because the team was judging the work against something they had already agreed on.

Identity tied to trust. Colour, type, photography, and the leaf element each had a job: to make patients feel safe, welcome, and cared for. In healthcare, that matters more than looking polished.

Guidelines built for everyone. The brand guidelines gave every department clear direction, not just marketing. Consistency is what turns a new identity into one patients come to recognize and rely on.
The same thinking applies to clinics, health systems, mental health organizations, and nonprofits working through a rebrand, a launch, or a growth stage where their communication has fallen behind the quality of their work.

Does your brand look as strong as the care behind it?

If your organization is launching, rebranding, or struggling to keep its communication consistent across teams, tell us a little about where things stand. We’ll ask a few questions, share what we see, and leave the next step up to you.