From Spark to Blaze
A nine-year creative partnership with the credit union built by firefighters, for firefighters — carrying them from a full rebrand in 2018 to a website that finally matched their ambition in 2025.
Role
Creative Direction, Brand Identity, Campaign Oversight, Web Direction
Timeline
2017–Present
Result
+43% in assets — $34.8M to $49.8M
Platform
Web, Print, Digital, Ads
From Designer to Director
When I first met this client, they were Fresno Fire Department Credit Union — a beloved institution with a name that no longer fit who they’d become. Their membership had outgrown the Fresno fire department, spreading across six Central Valley counties, and the numbers showed the strain: membership was shrinking when we started working together in 2017.
I came in as a graphic designer and left the account as its creative director — picking up the brand, every campaign, and two website builds along the way. As my role grew, so did the account: I’ve overseen their brand, every campaign, and their digital presence ever since, through my own evolution from designer to VP of Creative Strategy.
Ignition Point
Every fire needs a spark, and ours was a realization: the brand had stopped telling the truth. An expanded charter had stretched their membership across six Central Valley counties, but the name still said “Fresno Fire Department” — and the logo, beloved as it was, had been showing its age for years. The institution had outgrown both.
The rebrand gave them a new name — Central Valley Firefighters Credit Union — a new identity, and a new website, all launched in May 2018. I designed the mark myself. The flame is the obvious read — but look closer and the flame reveals two secrets: their initials, CVF, hidden in the shape, and the same form doubling as a water droplet, a nod to the firefighters who spend their days putting fires out. The rebrand wasn’t cosmetic. It announced to a six-county region that this credit union was theirs — and the market answered: loan growth hit 43% in the rebrand quarter.
Steady Burn
A rebrand gets attention once. Keeping it is the real work — and that’s been the story of the nine years since. I’ve directed their marketing through it all: seasonal product campaigns, community events, membership drives, and a quarterly newsletter that has to feel fresh every single quarter without ever drifting off brand. Some of that work I designed myself in the early years; as my role changed, I shifted to setting the creative strategy, briefing designers, and holding every piece to the standard the brand deserved.
The strategy held, and the client’s own numbers show it. In the rebrand quarter alone, loan growth hit 43% and membership growth climbed to nearly 20%. Nine years in, the credit union that was shrinking when we met has grown to nearly $50M in assets — and their marketing never stopped performing: email campaigns with 42% open rates against a 25% industry average, and brand search ads clicking at nearly six times the credit union benchmark.
Five-Alarm Launch
When CVFCU was ready for a new website in 2025, the brand had matured to the point where the site could finally match it. I directed the build end-to-end — defining the creative direction, leading discovery alongside the strategist, and overseeing the design team through information architecture, visual design, and launch. The result is a site that makes a small credit union feel as trustworthy and modern as any national bank, with clear paths to the products members actually need.
Hover and scroll to explore.
cvfirecu.org
Still Burning Bright
This account is the clearest picture of how I work: long-term brand stewardship, campaigns that stay fresh within a system, and a team led well enough that quality never depends on me being the one pushing pixels. They came to us shrinking and stayed for nearly a decade of growth. I don’t claim every point of that growth — credit unions are living businesses — but every campaign, every piece of strategy, and every brand decision along the way ran through me.