Customer: SASHC
Project: Brand Elevator Package
Year: 2025
Services Delivered:
SASHC (SA Speech & Hearing Centre) is an Adelaide-based clinic offering integrated speech pathology and audiology services for people at every stage of life. What makes them different is that the clinic is led by a professional who is dual-qualified in both disciplines.
It was a pleasure to work with Niva and the SASHC team on this project. They came in with a clear sense of what they stood for, having commissioned their own marketing strategy.
SASHC didn’t come to us with this project without a brand. In fact they had two!
Over time, the clinic had been operating under two separate identities — Speak Hear and SA Speech & Hearing Centre — which had developed alongside each other as the business grew. Both names had recognition. Both had existing clients. But running two identities for what was essentially one integrated service was creating confusion, both for new patients trying to understand what they were booking into and for the business itself trying find consistency as they represented themselves.
The goal wasn’t necessarily to start from scratch. It was to bring clarity.
Consolidating into a single brand, meant making decisions about what to carry forward and what to leave behind. The SASHC name had some equity, and some of the more up-to-date design elements of Speak Hear were worth preserving, so that existing clients would still recognise the clinic they trusted. The overarching direction needed to change: cleaner, calmer and far more deliberate about who it was speaking to.
This is a common situations small businesses can find themselves in. The brand didn’t fail, it just grew. Services expanded, a second trading name appeared, the market shifted. What worked at the start stops reflecting the business you’ve actually built.
Before a colour was chosen or a logo sketched, we did the visual brand strategy. Audience research, competitor analysis, brand foundations and a clear creative direction, were all documented in a strategy that could inform every design decision that followed.
A logo designed without strategy is essentially a guess. It might look good. It might even feel right. But without understanding who it needs to speak to, what it needs to communicate and how it sits against the competition, you’re decorating without a floor plan.
For SASHC, the strategy work revealed something worth paying attention to.
Most speech and hearing clinics in Adelaide have built their brands around the patient. Visit their websites and you’ll find bright colours, playful icons and a visual language clearly aimed at children.
It makes sense on the surface — a lot of the patients are kids. But when we looked at who was actually making the decision to book, to research providers and to choose between clinics, a different picture emerged.
The real decision-makers were Gen X adults, typically aged 35 to 65. Some were parents of children who needed support. Others were adult children navigating the process of getting help for an ageing parent. Both groups were time-poor, research-driven and looking for a provider they could trust.
This audience values professionalism and warmth, and they’re comfortable online. They read reviews, notice when a website feels dated or a brand looks like it was designed for someone else entirely. They make decisions based on trust, and trust is built visually before a single word is read.
Designing for the patient when the decision-maker is someone else entirely is a common branding mistakes in healthcare. The SASHC brand needed to speak directly to the adult holding the phone.
The icon at the centre of the SASHC identity brings together three elements: a speech bubble, an ear and a heart, all drawn from a single continuous line. Each element represents a distinct part of the service: speech pathology, audiology and the people-before-process value that runs through everything SASHC does.
The continuous line was a deliberate choice. It reinforces the interdisciplinary nature of the clinic, the idea that these services aren’t offered in separate silos but woven together into one cohesive approach to care. The line also wraps the ear in a way that echoes the shape of a behind-the-ear hearing device. This detail adds meaning for anyone who notices.
The wordmark is bold and confident, rounded enough to feel approachable. A subtle connection between two of the letterforms reinforces the concept of connection.
The colour palette moves away from the bright primaries common in the competitor landscape. Deep navy anchors the brand with authority and calm. Earthy olive and soft sage bring warmth without feeling clinical and cream replaces white throughout, keeping the palette from feeling cold. A sunshine accent appears sparingly and is used to draw focus without overwhelming.
One of the most useful parts of the strategy process was mapping the visual marketplace by searching the terms a potential SASHC client would actually use, revealing the top 10 competitors.
The Adelaide speech and hearing market is crowded with child-focused brands using playful icons, primary colours, and even illustrated children. We uncovered a clear gap; no one was visually positioning themselves as the trusted, whole-of-family provider for the adult making the decision.
That gap became SASHC’s opportunity. A calm, grounded, warm brand that signals expertise without the coldness of a medical institution — and that speaks to a Gen X parent or adult child rather than the six-year-old in the waiting room.
What good branding actually does
A brand identity isn’t just a logo. Done well, it’s a system. It’s a set of tools that work consistently across every touchpoint, from a business card to a pull-up banner to a social media post.
For SASHC, that system includes a full logo suite with primary, secondary and longform variations, a complete colour palette with usage guidance, a typographic hierarchy, photography direction, brand patterns, deconstructed icons and a detailed style guide that means anyone applying the brand can do it confidently and consistently.
Does your healthcare or service business appeal to the right people?
If your branding was built around your patients rather than the people choosing you, it might be working harder than it needs to. Splitpants works with businesses who’ve outgrown their visuals and need a brand that’s built to last and reaches the right people.
Good work deserves a brand that speaks to the right people. If yours isn’t quite doing that, that’s exactly what we’re here for.
