The Colorado Trust is a philanthropic foundation that works to ensure all Coloradans have fair and equal opportunities to lead healthy, productive lives—regardless of race, ethnicity, income, or zip code. The Trust came to Teal with an academic philanthropy site and a difficult-to-navigate news section that buried nearly 500 incredible local stories. They wanted a new approach to their brand and website that would help them to convey The Trust’s community-led grantmaking approach by lifting up stories of health equity and community power building.
Together, Teal and The Trust transformed their website and brand into a cohesive primary and sub-brand, two complementary websites that lift up the voices of Coloradans, and a dramatically more functional experience for The Trust’s core community audiences.
Following the launch of the new websites, Teal also took over day-to-day management of The Trust’s social media marketing for Instagram – in the first 3 months alone, we saw large increases across the board across key metrics:
+115%Impressions
+133%Engagements
+150%Net Follower Growth
Part 1 — Expanding the brand into a shared design system
Creating two distinct—yet connected—visual identities
Our early discovery sessions uncovered a gem: a “Newsroom” section brimming with beautiful photography and independent journalism that narrated The Trust’s vision for health equity with compelling local stories. With this insight, we launched a dedicated naming and brand workshop series to define the identity of this wholly independent news platform. The result? Collective Colorado, a new home for local investigative journalists to examine the social determinants of health and support The Trust’s work to build community power across Colorado.
Now, with two distinct, yet connected brands and clear positioning, Teal’s designers got to work. We created a sophisticated, professional look-and-feel for The Trust, and also established a brand identity for Collective Colorado.
Together, the design systems inform one another while feeling distinct. Siblings, not twins. And together, greater than the sum of their parts.
Both brands share a typography system that allows for flexibility within. The combination of a bold, modern, sans serif and a classic serif speaks to the editorial and storytelling aspect of the brand in a bold and authentic way.
Part 2 — Two sites, two sets of needs
Two sites, one consistent user experience
The Trust came to this project as true partners, ready to be pushed creatively and open to new ways to convey their innovative, community-led approach to grantmaking. Teal guided The Trust through our well-honed collaborative process to create distinct plans and visual designs for both The Trust and Collective websites.
The sites stand apart and work together to tell a complete story about the intersectionality of health equity and how The Trust is driving change.
The Trust: Key Features
Powerful, simplified navigation experience: Teal distilled a complex original sitemap into three core sections that clearly and intuitively explain The Trust’s vision and strategies, along with details on the organization driving this work.
People-focused imagery vs. natural scenes: While calm and visually appealing, the previous site’s Colorado nature scenes did not foreground the people and community impact animating The Trust’s work in the state. Teal’s redesign brings authentic community photos front and center to help connect with its most important audience: Coloradans.
Clear language to explain complex ideas: Social determinants of health will never be a household term. Teal partnered with The Trust to integrate powerful, simple language that shifts the narrative from wonky to accessible—from population health to helping communities thrive.
Collective Colorado: Key Features
Immersive reading experience: Teal’s designers stripped away all unnecessary content from the individual story pages, giving the site a journalistic feel with bold photos, highly legible body copy, and the option to read the article in Spanish with one click.
Flexible component system: The Collective Colorado team can custom build each article page to match the content—not the other way around. Pull quotes, photo slideshows, captions, and more are all easy to drop in, customize, and rearrange on the fly to build the most compelling story possible in record time.
Topic-focused navigation: Following The Trust’s focus on clear language, Collective Colorado is organized around a set of approachable topics—from housing and health care to education and community power.
For The Trust, the new websites reflect their partnership with the Colorado community and the pioneering way they fund community-led grantmaking to lift up local leaders. By partnering directly with people and organizations across the state, The Trust is giving power to Coloradans to build a community where everyone is able to live a long and prosperous life—not just survive, but thrive.
Our Teal team is thrilled to support these stories of impact—and the ones not yet written—as The Trust continues its work to build a healthier Colorado.
Teal Media is outstanding at project management. I've been part of several redesigns over the years, and they are the most efficient agency I've ever worked with. They stayed under budget and on schedule the entire time, with few surprises. and they're good at listening to our ideas. We find ourselves leaning into their expertise and advice whenever possible. I'm stunned by how efficient their team is. Their process is clearly so time-tested and well-honed that I don't have to worry about a thing. Trust Teal's team - they really know what they're doing.
