A letter from our CEO: We’re changing our name.
To our valued clients, customers and supporters:
We want you to be among the first to know that moving forward we will operate under a new name: Vibrant Works with a shortened tagline: Empowering people with vision loss. Although our name is changing, our mission remains the same.
If you do business with us, our legal name will remain San Antonio Lighthouse for the Blind and contracts do not need modification at this time. For checks or payments, you may use our DBA “Vibrant Works” beginning on June 26, 2023.
Our headquarter location in San Antonio will be the first phase of the rebrand rollout and our stores on military bases, or BSCs, will be rebranded one-by-one over the course of 2024.
We ask for your patience while we go through the phases of this rebrand and more importantly, we ask for your support as we move into an exciting new era for our organization.
When we started this journey more than a year ago, we didn’t intend to do a full rebrand. Our goal was to simply be more consistent in the way we message our name and strategically utilize our logo colors. That was it.
After going through discovery sessions, a survey with our stakeholders, and employee focus groups, we realized it was time to dig deeper into our identity and fully capture all aspects of our complex organization.
There was an appetite for a name that represented who we are currently and where we’re headed. While we are extremely proud of our 90-year history, our goal is for the public to think of cutting-edge manufacturing, empowerment and independence for the full spectrum of those losing their vision and ultimately, upward mobility for people who are blind. The days of us simply manufacturing light bulbs and brooms are long gone.
A Google search of “lighthouse San Antonio” will capture results for a school, a popular bar, a church, two art organizations and a daycare. Imagine having a degenerative eye disease and trying to navigate through these options to find the resources you need. Our goal is to make it as easy as possible for those with all types of vision loss to find our organization and understand our capabilities.
With the new name, we’ll be inviting the public to see the capabilities of people with vision loss. Our goal is to also reframe the way people with vision loss think about their own lives and what’s possible. We plan to do this in our marketing efforts throughout the city.
We feel confident our new branding architecture reflects the core of who we are in a few different ways:
- The Vibrant Works signature logo is made up of two elements – the V symbol is a stylized V+W image which circles back on itself forming an eternal loop. The interconnectedness of the V and the W in the logo symbolizes the organization’s social enterprise and the unique model of utilizing revenue from manufacturing and military stores to provide low vision services for Bexar and surrounding counties.
- Our new name and bright colors in the logo reflect the energy and culture of our lively workforce and clients. We’re full of life and momentum and we want the world to see us this way.
- The full-color logo represents the wide spectrum of clients and vision loss stages we serve.
- We took out ‘San Antonio’ from the name. We currently have stores on military bases in three different states and offer services outside of San Antonio. We’ve maintained a nod to the vibrance of our headquarter city with our full-color logo.
- An important feature of our logo is the font: Atkinson Hyperlegible. This typeface optimizes legibility for readers with low vision. All characters are easily distinguishable from each other. This will be our standard font throughout all collateral.
You’ll begin to see official changes throughout this summer as we launch our new website, update our social media presence and marketing materials.
This is an exciting time for our employees and our customers as we focus on modernizing our product offerings and bringing the organization into a new chapter.
We would like to take this opportunity to express our appreciation for your support. We look forward to your continued partnership as we embark on this new journey.
With gratitude,
Cindy Watson
President and CEO