Crafting a Living Memorial with The Hearts Project

Blue Zoo Creative helped brand what started as an artist’s passion project into a powerful nonprofit brand, digital home, and statewide movement of remembrance, healing, and community storytelling.

A Memorial Born from the Pandemic

In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, Arkansas artist Monica Moore began cutting small paper hearts—thousands of them. Each heart represented a life lost in Arkansas during the pandemic. They were fragile, imperfect, and deeply human. Soon, they filled 3×3 wooden frames, arranged in quilt-style mosaics that echoed both Southern heritage and the shared grief of a global tragedy.

What began as a personal act of mourning quickly evolved into The Hearts Project: a living memorial, a statewide art installation, and ultimately a nonprofit foundation dedicated to honoring lives, documenting stories, and fostering connection in times of collective hardship.

By 2023, The Hearts Project had grown beyond what one artist could sustain alone. Community partnerships expanded. Schools and organizations contributed. Volunteers appeared to lend their talents. Exhibits moved across cities. Stories poured in. With this new visibility came new needs:

• Clear, meaningful branding
• A cohesive digital presence
• Tools to manage stories, volunteers, events, and exhibit bookings
• A visual identity that could grow with the foundation
• And a website capable of honoring lives with dignity, emotion, and structure

This is where Blue Zoo Creative started its collaboration with The Hearts Project.

Challenge:

Building a Brand That Honors Loss and Hope

The Hearts Project was already loved by many. But its brand, website, and communications were still tied to its earliest grassroots phase. There was no centralized digital home, no easy way to collect stories, and no consistent way to represent the Project visually across events, partnerships, and exhibits.

The challenge was to create a brand system that:

1. Preserved the handcrafted soul of the original memorial
2. Communicated legitimacy and longevity as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit
3. Served as a beacon of remembrance and resonance for families and communities
4. Stayed flexible as more frames, exhibits, and programs launched
5. Unified the narrative around healing, art, and human connection

Our team needed to translate delicate, handcrafted art into a scalable digital identity without losing authenticity, symbolism, or emotional weight.

Discovery:

Returning to the Frame

During brand discovery, we asked one guiding question: Where did this all begin?

The answer was immediate: the framed hearts.

Besides the handcut hearts themselves, the 3×3 wooden frames were the first physical representation of The Hearts Project that were exhibited. The plan was to hold thousands of hand-cut hearts, each representing an Arkansan who had died of COVID-19. The frames were built from warm, natural wood. Their boxes, corners, and grids became architectural foundations for the Project’s message: memory has structure.

Looking closely at the frames, we saw every beveled edge, every joint, every intentional line. The craftsmanship was not only artistic but powerful. And importantly, it was recognizable.

By studying the frame itself, side-by-side with their team, we began designing a visual brand that drew upon:

• The grid structure of the original collages

• Brown wood tones symbolizing grounding, stability, and community

• Red and yellow hues drawn from the COVID awareness ribbon

• Hand-cut heart shapes to preserve the hand-cut artistry and craft

• A sense of quilt-like assembly without feeling nostalgic or antiquated

This handcrafted aesthetic would remain a central brand element—but not dominate the logo. The logo needed to function everywhere from print to signage to social icons, and handcrafted art rarely scales well.

We created a visual system that incorporates handcrafted elements to enhance the brand, while maintaining a clean, modern, and scalable logo.

This was the turning point.

(read more below the image)

Brand Identity:

A Scalable Symbol Rooted in Humanity

The final brand identity reflects both artistry and symbology.

The Logo

The icon is a balanced, geometric representation inspired by the quilted mosaics and 3×3 frame shape. It can stand alone or pair with the full wordmark. Its simplicity ensures clarity at any size, on websites, exhibit signage, brochures, apparel, or social media icons.

Color Palette

We established a three-part palette that honors the project’s symbolism:

• Browns we call Sacred Ground (dark) and Hallowed Ash (light): grounding earth and crafted wood

• A Red we call the Honor Flame:  love, loss, and remembrance

• A Yellow we call Quiet Dawn:  hope, light, and resilience shared for new days ahead

Paired with neutrals (Parchment and Stone) and modern typography (Helvetica Neue), this palette created a visual language that is immediately recognizable and emotionally intuitive.

Handcrafted Motifs

To honor The Hearts Project’s origins, we incorporated subtle textures and patterns drawn from the original paper hearts and wooden frames. These elements appear throughout the website, social graphics, and printed materials, never overwhelming, always supporting the message.

Brand Guidelines

We delivered a comprehensive branding package including:

• Logos in multiple layouts and file types

• Icon variations

• Color codes for print and web (CMYK and HEX)

• Typography usage

• Layout recommendations

• Social profile assets

• Photography (from shared images)

The result: a brand ecosystem that feels handcrafted, grounded, and emotionally resonant, while also scalable, consistent, and future needs.

Website Design & Development:

A Digital Home for Healing and Community

With a solid brand identity in place, we turned to the next critical need: a website that could house stories, updates, events, memorials, press releases, and educational content.

Core Goals of the Website Build

The team designed the site to:

• Tell the story of The Hearts Project

• Allow visitors to explore the COVID-19 Memorial and the nonprofit mission

• Share real stories from real families, communities, and frontline workers

• Showcase exhibit dates, locations, events, and speaking engagements

• Support volunteer and booking workflows

• Offer a future donation portal

• And provide Monica and the Board with tools to update everything on their own, or with our help

Key Features

1. Exhibit Calendar
   Visitors can see all upcoming (and past) exhibit dates, community events, and speaker engagements in one unified view.
2. Hearts Updates (News)
   A primary post type for project announcements, progress updates, press features, and behind-the-scenes moments.
3. Hearts Stories
   A secondary post type dedicated to personal stories shared by families, survivors, frontline workers, and community volunteers.
4. Exhibit Booking Form
   Allows libraries, museums, schools, and public institutions to request an exhibit.
5. Volunteer Form
   Captures interest from community members wanting to help with events, installations, workshops, and story collection.
6. Donation Portal (Coming Soon)
   Structured to integrate securely once the foundation completes its funding setup (though donations can be accepted now).
7. Accessibility Considerations
   High-contrast options, thoughtful typography, and descriptive alt tags ensure the site is welcoming to all audiences.

Development

The website was developed on WordPress using modern, performance-driven practices:

• Custom-designed templates

• Intuitive back-end editing

• Mobile-first responsive design

• Locally managed hosting and support

• Robust security and daily backups

• Legal, Privacy, and Cookie policies

The launch marked a significant milestone: The Hearts Project now had a digital foundation strong enough to support statewide and national visibility.

Impact:

From a Single Artist to a Statewide Legacy and Beyond

The transformation is on it’s way to produce measurable and emotional impact, with hopes for more of the following:

• A unified brand identity strengthens recognition across Arkansas

• Partnerships with libraries, art organizations, and nonprofits have expanded

• Families now have a centralized place to share stories

• Educators and community groups can easily book the exhibit

• Allow more public awareness to grow dramatically through social and digital channels

• The foundation is positioned for long-term sustainability

Most importantly, the new brand and website stay true to the heart of the nonprofit’s mission:

To honor every life, every story, and every moment of connection created through the art of remembrance.

A Shared Journey of
Art, Memory, and Healing

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