Case Study 02

Reaching Sales & Attendance Goals for a Major Fundraising Event While Reconnecting Fellows to PiLA's Mission

"Walter produced high-quality creative work very quickly and took the initiative to innovate beyond what we asked. Walter has good ideas and an excellent eye for color; he is very easy to work with, and is generous with his time."

MICHAEL S., PROJECT MANAGER

Opportunities

The November gala not only had revenue potential but was being held during the organizations 15th-anniversary. What better way to reconnect and reflect on fifteen years of impact?
Assets were pixelated and since I needed to recreate this why not whip up a simple visual identity system to help staff create consistent branding going forward.
A video slideshow and social media graphics would help promote the gala and allow the organization to reintroduce itself to all its past fellows and partner organizations.

SERVICES: CONSULTING & TUTORIALS, COPYWRITING, GALA BROCHURE, GRAPHIC DESIGN, IDENTITY SYSTEM, 15TH-ANNIVERSARY VIDEO

Solution

After our initial call, collecting materials, and researching/grabbing content from social media it was clear the 15th-Anniversary should be a core narrative in our communications. Within two weeks I presented a design proof featuring a bold visual identity system and drafts of logo and social media graphics.

A small team—one paid position and a few sporadic volunteers, I knew what I provided had to be simple enough and be done with software staff had access to. This factored into deciding what fonts to use, programs to do videos in, and creating Photoshop templates new images could be dropped in with.

I updated their social media sites with new digital artwork, provided guidance and artwork for the website, and worked with the director and a volunteer to craft taglines and marketing copy. A request for a video came in. I sent a draft to Michael and he published it. My goal was to polish it up and have someone with a Spanish accent record the audio. Lastly, I created the gala booklet when that request came in.

My Approach

Small organizations may not have the resources or understand the value of making sure logos and assets render well. Even a simple visual identity document can be a great resource to help staff consistently use the same colors, choose typography, and assist in taking or getting photography that projects the brands personality consistently.
I worked with Michael and the social media volunteer to create materials for them to share as well as provide templates they could use going forward.
Small solutions can have impact:

In the gala brochure, the fellows are listed on the middle spread. I could have easily just taken the names and listed them as instructed. Instead, I created a connection between the fellow, city stationed in, and which partner organizations they worked with. This provides a deeper understanding of PiLA’s reach.
Lowercasing the "i" in PiLA was a simple way to add an easy sense of movement and make the wordmark both recognizable and have more personality.
Using Photoshops layers allowed me to pass along a template to PiLA staff where they can easily drop a photo in as the bottom layer to have unique visual effect.

Case Studies: Hartbody Health, Princeton in Latin America, Curtis Institute of Music

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