Snichim Foundation
The Sníchim Foundation is a non-profit foundation that is revitalizing the language of the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) People. Before engaging our services, the company was called KAS, a language, culture, and arts-focused Indigenous company. The Sníchim Foundation was created to take the work that KAS had started but purely focus on revitalizing their language.
It was such a rewarding project as we were not ‘just’ creating a brand strategy and visual identity but an opportunity to improve the quality of life for the Squamish People (connection to ancestry, community, the land, culture, identity, health, forgiveness, inspiration, longevity, knowledge and understanding).
The discovery meeting was with 15 staff members, discussing their culture, history, language loss, hopes, and the importance of revitalizing their spoken language, not just for today, but for generations to come.
From this, we were able to develop the following:
WHAT
We are a non-profit foundation, revitalizing the language of the Squamish people.
HOW
We provide immersion language opportunities for adult learners, creating an abundance of fluent Squamish language speakers at an accelerated rate.
WHY
We are committed to carrying on the work of our ancestors and being prosperous, improving the quality of life for Squamish language speakers.
We were able to condense the company’s essence (a few words describing its fundamental nature) to: Prosperity for our people. We asked, “When we look back in 100 years, what difference has language revitalization made? What have we built? What have we healed? What were the immediate benefits and what positive changes have we bestowed on future generations?”
We created their vision, “We imagine a future where the Squamish language is thriving, being used by our people of all ages, daily. We are committed to carrying on the work of our ancestors and being prosperous, improving the quality of life for Squamish language speakers.”
We also created their mission, “We are a non-profit foundation, revitalizing the language of the Squamish people. We provide immersion language opportunities for adult learners, creating an abundance of fluent Squamish language speakers at an accelerated rate.”
As the name of the organization doesn’t tell you what they do, we decided to use a descriptive statement for the tagline, “Revitalizing the Skwxwú7mesh language.”
After the brand strategy, we developed their visual identity (all the elements that visually identify the company), including their logo (and usage rules), colour pallet, typography, imagery style, and collateral examples of a brochure, website, signage, business card, to show how all the different elements of the new brand work together as a cohesive design platform.
Since then, the company has been building its brand reputation by offering their certificate and diploma programs and reaching out to sponsorship opportunities and social media.
