HEALTHY CHICAGO

| GOVERNMENT/HEALTHCARE

Pursuing Longer, Healthier Lives for all Chicagoans

Today, the average white Chicagoan lives 10 years longer than the average Black Chicagoan. And in the 10 years between 2010 and 2020, Latinx Chicagoans had the biggest decline in life expectancy. That’s unacceptable.

For years, the Chicago Department of Public Health has worked to improve livelihoods and close our city’s racial life expectancy gap through the Healthy Chicago movement. In early 2020, the city released a new 5-year roadmap of goals and implementation strategies. This roadmap was almost immediately derailed by the COVID-19 pandemic; the city shifted to an all-hands-on-deck approach to protecting and caring for our communities.

In 2022, CDPH was ready to resume Healthy Chicago’s original intent. Bigmouth was tasked with refreshing the Healthy Chicago brand, messaging and educational toolkit to better support CDPH and its community partners, and to reach audiences of all ages and races.

CLIENT

Chicago Department of Public Health

INDUSTRY

Health/Government

SERVICES

Research and stakeholder interviews
Brand workshop
Identity
Design systems
Content strategy
User experience
Social media
Website
Integrated campaign
Printed collateral
Video

BRAND STRATEGY

Clear, empowering communication tools for every audience

Healthy Chicago is a movement that unites many partners and stakeholders: government; community health organizations; faith and community-based groups; and even Chicagoans themselves. The visual brand and related messaging needed to be accessible to all audiences, who represent a wide range of reading comprehension levels, lived experience and medical knowledge.

Bigmouth immersed ourselves in feedback from our primary CDPH partners, who reported on their accomplishments and opportunities for improvement. We then identified a core group of community organization leaders to serve as our centers of influence (COIs) throughout the project. These COIs acted as our bridge to understanding the greater public.

Clarity

Be clear on who messaging is for and modify based on our audience. Model and streamline clear, effective internal and external communication.

Connection

Use relevant examples to connect communities with relevant services and resources. Take a bottom-up approach to reach communities with a distrust of government and healthcare.

Energy

(Re)build energy and engagement around the Healthy Chicago 2025 movement. Empower change makers, opinion shapers and hand raisers.

Structure

Create additional ways for people to get involved and connect. Focus on distributing useful, relevant data to our community partners.

Efficiency

Remove frustrations and effort required for sharing our content and messaging. Empower internal audiences to work from a shared language.

BRAND STORY + VISUAL IDENTITY

Re-introducing a crucial movement

After going quiet for 2 years during the city’s COVID-19 response, the Healthy Chicago movement needed to rally both existing and new audiences around its goals.

Bigmouth anchored our process with an updated brand story and visuals designed to bring clarity to Healthy Chicago’s communications while exciting and re-energizing audiences. An updated logo is an evolution of the previous Healthy Chicago logo, while a bold, bright visual expression captures the vibrancy of our city.

VERSION 1.0

VERSION 2.0

VERSION 2025

BRAND STORY + VISUAL IDENTITY

Increasing engagement and a sense of representation

Early in the messaging development process, we realized the Healthy Chicago team needed two sets of key messaging: one for those sharing the messages (internal audiences), and one for those receiving them (the public and Chicago residents). We developed those messages based on ideas and vocabulary that resonated with each group while clearly delivering the necessary information.

Internal Audience

People sharing the message— how we inform the messengers

External Audience

People receiving the message— how the messengers inform others

CAMPAIGN CREATIVE

Equipping the Healthy Chicago movement to go further

After landing on a common visual and verbal language, the Bigmouth team set out to create materials that served two primary purposes: Re-launching the Healthy Chicago movement and empowering stakeholders to do the work of Healthy Chicago within their communities.

Stakeholder materials

Internal CDPH teams and external partners needed to present a professional, united front when communicating about the movement. Bigmouth created universal tools, including a PowerPoint template, educational one-sheet, stickers, a poster, and a bookmark, for anyone to use. The Healthy Chicago brand story was included in a brand flip-book, which was distributed at the Healthy Chicago 2025 Symposium and HCEZ Showcase in August 2023. All materials were translated into Spanish.

Launch materials

Spreading the word about the Healthy Chicago relaunch required informing both existing supporters and new audience members through digital and physical touchpoints.

Bigmouth developed healthychicago.org as a one-stop resource for all internal and external stakeholders to learn about the movement, the city’s racial life expectancy gap, Healthy Chicago progress and how to get involved in their own communities.

Pages were organized and written to give all Chicagoans a clear path to understanding and action. For example, the Learn More page uses data to detail the primary drivers of Chicago’s life expectancy decline and gap. This information helps visitors understand both their own risk factors and those in their communities; the Get Involved page then clarifies a path to take action.

The website also serves as a signup point for the Healthy Chicago newsletter, which delivers news, progress updates and health-focused tips. Bigmouth continues to write, design and edit this quarterly publication. The Healthy Chicago movement is continuously growing and evolving, and the brand is evolving to better inform the community. In November, CDPH launched the Healthy Chicago podcast, where medical experts discuss important health topics. And they’re continuously finding new ways to connect with Chicagoans around the subject of health equity.

A social media toolkit was created for use by both CDPH and community partners. Posts are designed to deliver key Healthy Chicago messages, show support for the movement and communicate updates on progress.

POSTER, ONE SHEET + STICKERS

SOCIAL MEDIA TOOLKIT

STAKEHOLDER TRAINING

Bringing it all together

Now that CDPH stakeholders and COIs had a common set of tools, they needed to learn how to use them. Bigmouth hosted a full training session to introduce the new brand, review materials and answer questions.