Giving form and identity to a trend-setting new model of acute care.

The Challenge

In early 2021, Adventist Health and several visionary partners were quietly revolutionizing acute care—by bringing it out of the hospital and into the home. While the hospital-at-home concept had existed before the pandemic, COVID and the resulting pressures on hospital capacity were accelerating its adoption rapidly. Adventist’s leadership approached Cactus to hone a market strategy and develop the name and visual identity for the new company and its new care offering. This brand would have a dual role: to convey the new care model, but also to speak to Adventist’s growing priorities in holistic well-being.

But health systems weren’t the only audience that mattered. We also wanted this brand to be meaningful to providers (physicians and nurses) and to patients themselves.

One key insight began to rise to the top: while enabled by technology, this new care model wasn’t actually a shift into the future, it was a shift to the past. A shift to a time when doctors routinely came into people’s homes to care for them, even in serious circumstances. In the home, doctors and patients met on the same footing and shared the same intimate experience. This feeling was epitomized by a 19th Century painting that quickly galvanized the whole team: The Doctor by Sir Luke Fildes.

Inspired by this idea of a ’return’ to a better way of caring for people, Cactus developed a stream of brand territories, this time leaning into dimensions of trust and building relationships. One key dimension we considered was the idea of presence—being there.

And shortly after, Dwellcare was born.

Now, we had a name, and a feeling, but we needed to bring it to life. The concept of ‘dwelling’ and recovery got the team thinking about sanatoriums and iconic places of healing.

This led us to a brand look and feel inspired by healing architecture, with geometric shapes and patterns, calming neutral and pastel tones, and beautiful compositions. As we built out the final brand, we created a balance between technology and empathy. And, crucially for an ‘at-home’ brand, we wanted Dwellcare to show people in their comforting home environment, recovering and striving towards well-being.

The Challenge

The Solution