Case Study
Oaklin Lane came to us at the beginning of a pretty big chapter. Founder Chris Callander had acquired Excel Pediatric Therapy in Rockwall, Texas, and was preparing to open the company's first flagship location in Lake Highlands. Chris had a deeply personal reason for starting Oaklin Lane, shaped by his own childhood experiences and a desire to help kids find the support they deserve.
The ambition was noticeable. Oaklin Lane wanted to grow into a nationwide pediatric therapy company while feeling like a trusted part of every community it served.
The brand had a lot of jobs to do. Parents needed a place they could believe in, clinicians deserved a workplace that cared for them, and kids needed an environment where doing hard things could feel like having fun.
We loved the challenge. And fortunately, the name gave us a pretty good place to start. So we got to work building the neighborhood.
We began by getting to know the people who would call Oaklin Lane home. And through our discovery conversations, we developed a messaging guide that helped define what being a good neighbor meant to each of them.
The idea was simple: Oaklin Lane is your neighborhood pediatric therapy clinic where hard work looks like having fun. That little thought gave us a whole lot to work with.
We wanted Oaklin Lane to sound like the kind of neighbor you'd be happy to find on your doorstep. Someone who listens, knows their stuff, and makes you feel a little more confident about what comes next.
So we wrote the brand messaging and website copy with gentle expertise, emotional intelligence, and kindness. We gave the team language that could reassure a worried parent, welcome a new clinician, and encourage a child who's having a particularly hard day.
“You found the right lane.”
“Progress isn't a straight line.”
“Small steps. Big moves.”
The neighborhood idea made its way into just about everything we wrote. Once we found the voice, the rest of the brand began to take shape around it.
With a name like Oaklin Lane, it's pretty hard to resist drawing a neighborhood. And we certainly tried. Our early concepts explored little houses, winding streets, trees, pathways, and all sorts of ways to capture the feeling of the name.
As we worked through them, we started imagining a brand full of colorful illustrations, friendly characters, and playful little details. There was a whole neighborhood waiting to be built, and we wanted to give it plenty of room.
We eventually landed on a simple wordmark built from New Spirit, a beautifully human typeface with an old-school editorial feel. We made subtle modifications to the letterforms to give them a sense of movement, almost like little pathways running through the name.
The logo gave us a steady center for everything we were dreaming up.
As we started developing the kid-friendly illustrations, something about the work felt wonderfully familiar. It reminded us of the books we loved growing up. Especially Richard Scarry.
If you grew up with those books, you probably remember the feeling. Every page was its own bustling little world, full of funny characters, colorful buildings, and tiny details you'd notice for the first time on your tenth read. We wanted some of that same curiosity and wonder to find its way into Oaklin Lane.
We paired a warm, colorful palette with simple organic icons and a collection of colored-pencil illustrations inspired by the everyday life of a neighborhood. People, houses, toys, therapy equipment, and all sorts of friendly little objects found their way into the mix.
The illustrations gave us a way to make the brand feel imaginative with a little nostalgia for the grown-ups, too.
For many families, their first visit to Oaklin Lane happens on a screen. We wanted that experience to feel just as welcoming as walking through the clinic doors.
We wrote, designed, and built a fully custom website that brings the neighborhood together. Parents can learn about services and find their way toward care. Clinicians can explore career opportunities. And the Oaklin Lane team has a flexible content system to keep the website growing alongside the company.
What started as a launch website has grown into roughly 50 pages, with educational articles, service information, location pages, and a growing library of resources. The site has already generated hundreds of form submissions, giving Oaklin Lane a helpful head start on the road ahead.
Once the brand started making its way into the clinics, we discovered just how many places a little neighborhood can show up. Appointment cards, stickers, posters, hallway signage, coloring sheets, t-shirts, tote bags, business cards, folders, banners. You get the idea.
Across the launch and our ongoing work together, we've designed nearly a hundred pieces of collateral, giving Oaklin Lane a visual language that works just as well on a tiny reminder card as it does across an entire clinic wall.
We're still finding new places for it to live, which might be our favorite part of the project.
"You built something that actually feels like what we set out to create... warm, credible, and completely unique. As the person responsible for putting this brand in front of the world, I can tell you that what you handed us today gives me every tool I need to do that with confidence."
Steven Segar
Brand Manager at Oaklin Lane