Brand Identity + Web Design Case Study | Hoosier Cowboy Association

STRATEGY • Case overview

River City Rodeo had built real equity over the years. People knew it, loved it, and showed up for it. But the Hoosier Cowboy Association (the nonprofit behind it) was largely invisible. There was no formal mission. No vision statement. No clear answer to the question of what HCA actually stood for outside of putting on a rodeo once a year.

That invisibility had real consequences. Without a standalone identity, HCA was effectively limited to one event, one season, one window of visibility. Every potential partnership, grant opportunity, or year-round community initiative was harder to pursue because there was nothing concrete to point to. No story to tell. No brand to rally around.

We couldn't build a website that solved that problem. We had to solve the problem first.

So before anything was designed, we sat down with HCA leadership and did the strategic work that hadn't been done yet. We helped them articulate their mission and vision from the ground up. Not as a box to check, but as a genuine foundation that would inform every creative decision that followed. Once we understood what HCA stood for independent of the rodeo, the path became clear.

Two brands. Designed to coexist, but capable of standing alone.

HCA got an identity that could represent the organization in any room, at any event, throughout the entire year. River City Rodeo got its own visual system built specifically for the event — scalable, flexible, and designed to work across every asset a rodeo of that size actually needs. Posters, tickets, postcards, signage, wristbands, social graphics, and a nine-page website that tied both identities together without letting either one get lost.

STRATEGY • Case overview

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River City Rodeo had built real equity over the years. People knew it, loved it, and showed up for it. But the Hoosier Cowboy Association (the nonprofit behind it) was largely invisible. There was no formal mission. No vision statement. No clear answer to the question of what HCA actually stood for outside of putting on a rodeo once a year.

That invisibility had real consequences. Without a standalone identity, HCA was effectively limited to one event, one season, one window of visibility. Every potential partnership, grant opportunity, or year-round community initiative was harder to pursue because there was nothing concrete to point to. No story to tell. No brand to rally around.

We couldn't build a website that solved that problem. We had to solve the problem first.

So before anything was designed, we sat down with HCA leadership and did the strategic work that hadn't been done yet. We helped them articulate their mission and vision from the ground up. Not as a box to check, but as a genuine foundation that would inform every creative decision that followed. Once we understood what HCA stood for independent of the rodeo, the path became clear.

Two brands. Designed to coexist, but capable of standing alone.

HCA got an identity that could represent the organization in any room, at any event, throughout the entire year. River City Rodeo got its own visual system built specifically for the event — scalable, flexible, and designed to work across every asset a rodeo of that size actually needs. Posters, tickets, postcards, signage, wristbands, social graphics, and a nine-page website that tied both identities together without letting either one get lost.

STRATEGY • Case overview

River City Rodeo had built real equity over the years. People knew it, loved it, and showed up for it. But the Hoosier Cowboy Association (the nonprofit behind it) was largely invisible. There was no formal mission. No vision statement. No clear answer to the question of what HCA actually stood for outside of putting on a rodeo once a year.

That invisibility had real consequences. Without a standalone identity, HCA was effectively limited to one event, one season, one window of visibility. Every potential partnership, grant opportunity, or year-round community initiative was harder to pursue because there was nothing concrete to point to. No story to tell. No brand to rally around.

We couldn't build a website that solved that problem. We had to solve the problem first.

So before anything was designed, we sat down with HCA leadership and did the strategic work that hadn't been done yet. We helped them articulate their mission and vision from the ground up. Not as a box to check, but as a genuine foundation that would inform every creative decision that followed. Once we understood what HCA stood for independent of the rodeo, the path became clear.

Two brands. Designed to coexist, but capable of standing alone.

HCA got an identity that could represent the organization in any room, at any event, throughout the entire year. River City Rodeo got its own visual system built specifically for the event — scalable, flexible, and designed to work across every asset a rodeo of that size actually needs. Posters, tickets, postcards, signage, wristbands, social graphics, and a nine-page website that tied both identities together without letting either one get lost.