CARP Rebrand

The Canadian Association of Retired Persons (CARP), founded in 1984, is a national not-for-profit dedicated to advocating for the rights and well-being of older Canadians. Its mission is to support those who are retired, approaching retirement, or caring for aging family members.

The Challenge

CARP was facing multiple challenges: declining membership, funding cuts, and diminished public awareness — all exacerbated by the global pandemic. We were tasked with revitalizing the brand to reconnect with its current base, attract new members, and begin engaging the nearly 5 million Canadians projected to retire in the next decade.

Collaborating directly with CARP’s president and senior leadership, we began by reimagining the brand’s foundation: its wordmark. Over the past 40 years, the logo had undergone numerous, and at times inconsistent, iterations.

Strategy and redesign

The new wordmark is set in a tightly tracked slab-serif and is a gentle nod to the original logo. It speaks to the journey Canadians embark upon towards their retirement years and the notion that retirement is not an end, but a meaningful milestone and path to be embraced, not endured.

We eliminated the maple leaf icon (a fixture of past logo iterations) and the political-esque royal blue and red palette. In its place, we introduced a softer blue and a cleaner, single colour application, helping combat negative perceptions around the partisanship of the association.

We also introduced a primary logo lockup that ties the acronym directly to the association’s full name, addressing persistent problems with public awareness and the lack of clarity surrounding who CARP represent.

These updates became the impetus for rethinking the broader visual language across membership materials, which previously conveyed a somewhat cold and sterile feeling. We reintroduced serif typography and pivoted to a softer colour palette, inspired by the new logo, to create a more approachable and unified tone. The use of red became reserved for CTAs and the maple leaf iconography has become a reoccurring motif symbolizing CARP’s vibrant community and national network of volunteers.

Message Realignment

Beyond visual changes, we also realigned CARP’s core messaging strategy. Previously, communication across member acquisition and retention materials focused heavily on the benefits (discounts, perks), which made joining CARP feel more like a transactional decision than joining a cause.

We shifted the narrative to highlight CARP’s impact: federal advocacy, community building, and support for aging Canadians. The new slogan “Join the Movement. Discover the Benefits.” captures this dual promise: be part of something meaningful, with real, tangible perks.

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