The opportunity

As the City of Lake Forest approached its 35th anniversary, City leadership recognized a pivotal opportunity: evolve the City’s identity to better reflect the vibrant, growing and increasingly sophisticated community Lake Forest had become.

Since incorporating in 1991, Lake Forest has emerged as a dynamic Southern California city known for its exceptional quality of life, strong neighborhoods, thriving business environment and deep connection to nature. Yet while community pride remained strong, the City’s existing brand no longer fully reflected its momentum, service excellence or expanding regional presence.

The City sought more than a visual refresh. Leadership wanted a cohesive, modern brand platform that could strengthen consistency across communications, reinforce the value of City services, support economic vitality and position Lake Forest for continued growth and recognition across Orange County.

At the same time, the project carried important political and organizational complexity. Questions surrounding the role of public investment in rebranding, community perception and long-term value made transparency, accountability and meaningful public involvement essential to building trust throughout the process.

JPW Communications was selected to lead a comprehensive rebranding initiative grounded in research, community engagement and long-term implementation strategy. The goal was to create a brand system that felt authentic to residents, practical for staff and flexible enough to grow alongside the City for years to come.

The approach

JPW led a robust, community-centered research and engagement effort designed to ensure the new brand reflected authentic community sentiment rather than assumptions or aesthetics alone.

The process blended qualitative and quantitative research methods to gather insight from residents, businesses, stakeholders, staff and City leadership across multiple touchpoints. Outreach included:

• Three community surveys generating more than 530 responses

• Resident and business focus groups

• One-on-one interviews with City Council members, department heads and community leaders

• Pop-up engagement events at highly attended community gatherings

• A communications and materials audit

• Peer city benchmarking across Orange County

• Media and landscape analysis

The research revealed consistent themes across audiences. Residents expressed a deep connection to Lake Forest’s natural environment, strong sense of belonging and exceptional quality of life. Survey participants overwhelmingly identified nature, community pride, safety and stewardship as defining characteristics of the City. The findings also confirmed an opportunity for stronger differentiation and memorability within the existing brand system.

These insights informed the development of the “Naturally Exceptional” brand platform — a positioning concept that reflects both Lake Forest’s scenic environment and the qualities that make it a place where people choose to live, work and invest.

From there, JPW translated strategy into a cohesive visual and verbal identity system through creative briefs, mood boards and multiple design explorations developed collaboratively with City leadership. The resulting identity balances elegance with accessibility and modernizes the City’s presence while honoring its history and community character.

Implementation was intentionally designed as a phased rollout focused on usability, governance and long-term adoption. JPW developed a comprehensive suite of tools and assets, including:

• Brand guidelines and governance standards

• Logo systems and color palettes

• Typography and graphic elements

• Presentation and report templates

• Stationery and business systems

• Social media guidance

• Digital applications and website alignment

• Environmental and signage concepts

To support internal adoption, JPW facilitated training during a citywide all-hands staff meeting, helping departments understand not only how to use the new brand, but why consistency matters in building clarity, trust and organizational alignment.