Department of Family & Community Medicine



Scope


/ Design platform
/ Report layout
/ Web design
/ Collateral design

Agency
/ Trajectory Brands Inc.

Launch
/ 2022
Primary care is in crisis across most of North America, fueled by trauma and burn-out after three years of a relentless pandemic; an aging profession where too many doctors are opting for retirement in the midst of peak demand; the fissures that COVID-19 has exposed in health inequities; and the ongoing challenges of health care economics. The Department of Family and Community Medicine (DFCM) at the University of Toronto boldly entered the fray with an inspiring vision of where the discipline needs to go next.

The largest academic department of Family Medicine in the world, DFCM represents 1,900 faculty, 1,000+ learners at all levels, 15 hospital sites, and 40+ teaching practices, from rural areas to urban centres. It’s home to the World Health Organization Collaborating Centre on Family Medicine and Primary Care. Recognized internationally for excellence in teaching, research and clinical care, DFCM’s reputation for breaking new ground in primary medicine (from office-based family practice to emergency, palliative, care of the elderly, mental health, and Indigenous health) is well-founded. In this climate, launching its ambitious roadmap of how to meet the current healthcare crisis is not simply an academic exercise. DFCM leadership intend to help shape the trajectory of family and community medicine practices in Canada and beyond.

Our assignment was to design the launch of DFCM’s strategic plan as a catalyst for powerful conversations and collaborations among practitioners, governments, and communities to support new models of patient-centered care and delivery, what DFCM dubbed, “New School Thinking.” Inspiring future doctors to specialize in family and community-based disciplines is another vital goal of DFCM’s communications.

To underscore the real-life joys and challenges of family and community work, we put out a call for day-in-the-life images from practitioners. The drama of up-close-and-personal scenes of colleagues and patients delivering care in homes, hospitals, on the street, and in community settings lends powerful depth to the DFCM story. 

The design language for New School Thinking is a boldly un-academic brand platform, from colour to typography and format, across the various communication channels: microsite, strategic plan document, the launch presentations and social media promotion. We enabled DFCM’s influential community of practitioners to further the conversation with a robust toolkit of messaging, presentations, easy-to-adapt social posts and more.