Shining Smiles
Shining Smiles is a dental practice based in Marietta, Georgia, and building a national dental-services-organization model. I developed the program as a freelance project during my tenure at Insidesign, and the scope included market research, patient-acquisition strategy, brand identity development, and website design.
Shining Smiles is a dental practice based in Marietta, Georgia, and building a national dental-services-organization model. Founded on a patient-first concept of well-being, its mission is to deliver honest advice, proactive care, and humane treatment, at the highest value possible, to ensure people live full, healthy lives.
As with all brand assignments, this one started with a comprehensive research and strategy phase.
The practice had experienced a sizable drop in the number of appointments over the previous four years. Surveys of current and former patients revealed that much goodwill existed toward the doctor and staff, with the words caring, honest, and knowledgeable among the top terms used to describe them. This suggested the decline likely wasn’t due to personnel or treatment issues. I then examined demographics by zip code to see how patient sentiments paired with factors such as age, income, and geography.
The practice had experienced a sizable drop in the number of appointments over the previous four years. Surveys of current and former patients revealed that much goodwill existed toward the doctor and staff, with the words caring, honest, and knowledgeable among the top terms used to describe them. This suggested the decline likely wasn’t due to personnel or treatment issues. I then examined demographics by zip code to see how patient sentiments paired with factors such as age, income, and geography.
The brand identity incorporates multiple graphic elements that reinforce attributes discovered during research, from the curving smiles of the stylized teeth, which also serve as a useful base unit for expanded graphic treatments. These forms culminate in the stylized dental diagram—yes, there are 32 forms in the swirl, to correspond to the 32 teeth in an adult human. The monogram accompanies a friendly and approachable logotype that can’t help but open with a friendly hi!
The base unit from the graphic identity was expanded into a stripe pattern for a custom wallcovering. The standards include a color palette based on a deep navy and a vibrant blue, and supported by a secondary range of colors inspired by spa interiors. The soft-edged typography features open, swooping shapes in a typeface that has a built-in smile.
The custom ligature drawn in the logotype, called the hi mark, also serves as a separate device for expressing the brand’s personality, which is friendly, warm, and caring.
Custom business papers include stationery, forms, and business cards that reinforce the core brand values of patient-first, optimal health, and compassion.
The website design provides a user experience as welcoming, approachable, and gentle to online visitors as the Shining Smiles team is to visitors in the office. Pages are easy to navigate, and they use plain language to explain the Shining Smiles approach to care, well-being, and long-term value.
