CORTIVA

Post-secondary school specializing in massage therapy and esthetics training.

role:
CREATIVE DIRECTOR & DESIGNER

client:
CORTIVA INSTITUTE

scope:
BRAND STRATEGY, VISUAL IDENTITY, WEB, VIDEO, DIGITAL, PRINT, CAMPAIGN SYSTEMS

THE CHALLENGE

Cortiva Institute needed to consolidate 14 distinct education brands across 31 campuses in 18 states into a single, recognizable national brand. Each legacy school carried its own tone, visual language, and regional identity—creating fragmentation, diluted awareness, and inconsistent enrollment messaging.

The core challenge wasn’t just visual unification. It was building trust, clarity, and aspiration across a highly competitive healthcare education market—without alienating existing students, faculty, or alumni.

THE STRATEGY

The rebrand focused on three guiding principles:

  • Clarity over complexity: Replace fragmented brand voices with a single, confident narrative centered on student outcomes and career readiness.

  • Human-centered storytelling: Shift messaging from institutional language to emotionally resonant stories that reflect real student success.

  • Scalable systems: Design a brand framework flexible enough to support dozens of campuses, programs, and recruitment channels without dilution.

This meant developing a cohesive brand system that could live seamlessly across digital, print, campus environments, and national recruitment campaigns.

THE EXCUTION

As Creative Director, I led both brand strategy and hands-on design, overseeing:

  • A new master brand identity and visual system

  • Unified messaging architecture across programs and campuses

  • Responsive website and digital recruitment experiences

  • Print collateral, outdoor, and campus materials

  • Modular campaign toolkits for local admissions teams

Design choices emphasized warmth, professionalism, and credibility—balancing emotional appeal with the seriousness of healthcare education. Every element was built to scale, ensuring consistency without sacrificing regional flexibility.

THE RESULTS

The rebrand launched nationally to immediate impact:

  • 25% increase in admissions following brand rollout

  • Strong positive reception from students, faculty, and internal stakeholders

  • Improved clarity and consistency across all recruitment channels

  • A sustainable brand system supporting long-term growth and expansion

Most importantly, Cortiva emerged with a clear, unified identity—positioned not as a collection of campuses, but as a national leader in healthcare education.

I worked with Jamie for 10 years at Cortiva Institute, a national trade school group. We were a small marketing team for 31 campuses in 14 states with 18 brands and 16 websites; Jamie was the sole designer, art director and creative force behind everything we did.

We went through several acquisitions over the years and Jamie handled each one flawlessly making sure each brand kept its own identity while simultaneously being a cohesive part of the group. He produced catalogs, handbooks, course manuals, print advertising, digital advertising, social media ads, sales literature, web design, environmental graphics and more, with iterations for each brand. When we undertook a MASSIVE rebrand in the later years turning all the local school brands into one for a stronger national presence, Jamie worked directly with our CEO, executive leadership, internal and external stakeholders to develop the brand and bring it to life.

He has a meticulous system for managing assets. His skills go beyond just creating. He works with printers, mail houses, manages artists and vendors, sees projects through from concept to creation. He’s skilled at managing people. He’s knowledgeable about production. He’s collaborative and thrives in a team environment. He’s fun and interesting. He’s an incredible human being. I cannot rave about him enough. He would be an amazing asset! Hire him!

Beth Goldberg, UCMT/Cortiva

DESIGN IS IMAGINATION REALIZED

Thank you for visiting

DESIGN IS IMAGINATION REALIZED

Thank you for visiting