For physical therapists ยท Brand identity & design
Physical therapy branding for two audiences.
Your brand has to look credible on a physician's referral pad and welcoming to a patient who is hurting and nervous. Plenty of PT logos manage one or neither.
Or text (508) 546-9942
Slide it
You vs. John Doe Physical Therapy.
Left is your website today. Right is the one John Doe Physical Therapy has. Drag the line, then hit the button.
Crickets on the left. That is the problem.
Welcome To Our Web Site
Visitors: 000417
Copyright 2014 · call 508-555-0123 · best viewed in a browser
Illustration. Joe is made up. Your competitor is not.
What you are paying for
Brand identity & design.
Logo, colors, type, and the rules that hold it together. Built so the next person who touches your marketing does not have to guess.
- Primary logo, plus the stacked and single-color versions you actually need
- Color palette with hex, RGB and CMYK values
- Typefaces chosen and licensed, with sizes and weights specified
- A one-page rule sheet anybody can follow
- Files organized and handed over, yours to keep
Next step
Book thirty minutes and I will tell you exactly what it would take.
What I would build
For a physical therapy clinic.
Primary logo plus the stacked and single-color versions you actually need: the referral pad, the fax cover sheet, the progress report header, the clinic window. Clean enough to sit beside a hospital's letterhead.
Color palette with hex, RGB and CMYK values, chosen to look calm in a gym-style treatment space and stay readable on the patient portal and printed exercise sheets.
Typefaces chosen and licensed, with sizes and weights specified so home exercise sheets and intake forms are readable for patients of every age, including someone fresh out of surgery and not at their sharpest.
A one-page rule sheet anybody can follow, so every location, every therapist and every outside printer uses the same files. Files organized and handed over, yours to keep, so a new location opens on brand.
The physical therapy clinic version
Why it matters.
Think about where your name shows up before a patient ever walks in. On a referral pad in an orthopedic office. On a list the front desk hands out. In a text from a friend who says go here. In each case the brand is doing quiet work: a medical office decides whether you look professional enough to recommend, and a patient decides whether you look like a place they would feel comfortable.
Multi-location clinics have an extra problem. Each site drifts. One has a new sign, one has the old logo on the door, one prints its own forms. Referring offices and patients notice when locations look like different businesses, and it weakens the trust a shared name should carry.
The mistake I see
Building the brand around the athlete
PT brands often lean on sports imagery: the sprinter, the basketball player mid-jump. That speaks to a slice of your caseload. The patient recovering from a joint replacement, the office worker with a stiff neck and the older adult working on balance may not see themselves in it. The brand should feel like it has room for the people actually filling your schedule.
How it goes
For a physical therapy clinic, step by step.
→ Keep scrolling. It moves sideways.
Look at what exists
Your current marks, your competitors, and what your customers already associate with you.
Direction, not options
Two directions, not eight. Eight is a way of making you do the deciding.
Build the system
The mark, then everything that has to sit next to it.
Hand it over
Organized files and a rule sheet. No hostage situation.
Step five is you.
The free Receipt shows what your physical therapy clinic should fix first. Free, no card.
Print my Receipt →
Questions
What physical therapists ask.
Should our brand look medical or more like a gym?
Somewhere in between, and where exactly depends on your patients. A clinic focused on post-surgical care and older adults leans clinical and calm. A sports-focused practice can carry more energy. Either way, the brand needs to look credible to referring physicians, because they are vouching for you to their patients.
We are adding a location. Do we need a rebrand?
Probably not, but you need the system. A new location is when inconsistency multiplies, so it is the right moment to lock down the logo versions, palette and rule sheet. If the current logo cannot scale to signs, forms and a second front door, that is when a refresh makes sense.
Should OT and speech services have their own brand?
They tend to work better inside one brand, with clear service names and maybe a color variation. Patients and referring offices find one name easier to trust and remember. A separate brand only makes sense if the service runs as a different business with its own referral sources.
What comes after
Pairs well with.
The patient holding a referral wants three answers: are you in network, are you open when I am free, and how soon can I start.
Usually nextContent design for physical therapy clinics.Home exercise sheets, referral packets, clinic newsletters and new patient guides.
Everything else
Other services for physical therapists.
Where I work
Southeastern MA, Worcester County, Cape Cod, RI and NH.
Start here
See what your customers see.
The Receipt looks your physical therapy clinic up the way a customer would and itemizes what is costing you calls. It is free. Or skip it and book fifteen minutes with me.
Or text (508) 546-9942