Tag: client work

BYC brand guide

Posted on by Rhea Diehl

BYC brand guide

brand redevelopment | copywriting | publication design

Challenge:

Using an extended logo design, create a set of brand guidelines for the company of the client in the form of an electronic book to illustrate the brand’s story, customers, and aesthetic.

Design Solution:

In April of 2021, Backyard Creations (an outdoor living design and build company) reached out to seek my help in a complete brand redesign. Unsatisfied with their current logo and brand, BYC wanted to elevate their aesthetic to relate more with their business relationships and knowledgeable clientele. After participating in several design consultations with the team and their own designer, a logo was designed that brought a sophisticated, modern touch to the otherwise industrialized style of this trade.  A company bases its entire brand off of its logo, and now that it was complete, I would be taking over the project. My big task was to create the brand guidelines that would ensure a seamless aesthetic company-wide.

Building this brand guide was essentially starting from scratch. They wanted to do away with their old style completely, save for a couple of colors and fonts. Starting with the guidelines themselves, I did some heavy research into brand guide documents and storytelling for this project. Not only would I be writing about this company’s brand, but I’d be writing about who they are, and telling the story of their success.

Hours and days of research and brainstorming led to the design decisions you see on these pages today. From the big, important components that you see in all brand guides (target audience, logos, typography, blah blah blah) to the small details, like making the color palette out of paint swatches.

The BYC team and I also had this great idea of creating an emblem for their products. We conceptualized a wood-burning iron of sorts that gives their product a permanent “seal of approval”. They really liked the look of the vector leaves used in the brand guide design; so much that they chose that graphic as the main component of the seal. Something simple yet sleek.

Self-Reflection:

I really loved how this project came out. I think a lot of strong design decisions were made here, and that they really elevate BYC over their competitors. Their new brand aesthetic communicates that they mean business, and they’re the experts, on the up-and-up in outdoor living. Follow-ups will be made at a later date to see how the rebrand is working out.

View the Digital Publication

Click the button below to be redirected to Issuu.com, where I’ve created a digital brand book to read through in more detail.

Brand Book

Interested in learning more about BYC and their products?

Visit their company website to read all about their experience, quality products, and the expert services that they offer.

Learn More

academic programs promotional campaign

Posted on by Rhea Diehl

academic programs promotional campaign

direct marketing | web design | print design

Challenge:

Develop various direct marketing materials to promote the addition of new academic programs introduced by the company for the upcoming year. 

Design Solution:

When my client reached out to do some updated marketing in the Spring of 2021, I was so excited to hit the ground running with this one. Expanding on the aesthetic that I created for the InfinityED brand previously, this project gave me the opportunity to create new graphics in the signature style (and have a lot of fun creating them!) If you look at some of the marketing materials for the Summer Grow Program, you’ll see some familiar faces from the last project we did… only this time, some of them have been transformed into plants! This idea was crafted to further promote the natural, agricultural basis of the program, while staying true to the roots (heh) of the program (i.e academics, mathematics etc).

The masks were designed with comfortability in mind, as they would be worn primarily by staff during in-center learning sessions. Bearing this in mind, the design can’t be too over-the-top…you don’t want to distract your students! We achieved a happy-medium with these by keeping these materials on-brand through the graphics and color palette used, but still tried to stay relatively subtle, and not be too “in your face”.

Quite possibly the most important part of the project was the academic brochure created to showcase all of the coming year’s programs. Previously, the Client didn’t have a central information hub on all of the programs offered, which can be very helpful to interested customers. Now, instead of calling the company to hear more about the programs, they are able to offer this convenient brochure outlining all the basic information needed for the consumer to make an informed decision.

Self-Reflection:

I always have a lot of fun with these projects with InfinityED. Having been working with them since the beginnings of the company (as it is now), it’s been incredibly rewarding to be a part of the process of building this brand up to what it is now, and having it take off. With so many other projects in the works with this Client, I’m so excited to see the great ideas and creativity within this brand grow. 

InfinityEd membership enrollment campaign

Posted on by Rhea Diehl

InfinityEd membership enrollment campaign

digital marketing | web design | campaign development

Challenge:

Develop an advertising campaign, related graphic deliverables, and a central information hub (website) to increase membership sales and awareness of the company.

Design Solution:

Following the first quarantine of the COVID-19 pandemic, Varna Naik reached out to me for help with picking her business back up by the bootstraps. Based in Amherst, MA, InfinityED is a small business in the education industry. Working with students from Kindergarten to Graduate School, Varna and her team create learning plans based on student-specific need. With e-learning becoming the norm at the time and membership sales decreasing, Varna needed to advertise to the public that “hey, we’re still here, and we do online tutoring too!”.

Working closely with her and her team, we developed a campaign to increase company awareness and membership sales using digital deliverables. This was achieved through the use of social media advertisements across a multitude of platforms, as well as building an on-brand, user friendly website utilizing original illustrations and graphics to appeal to the target audience of the company.

Being that the company’s target audience was both parents and students, two alternating advertisements were created for social media; one in the perspective of a parent, and one in that of a student. We wanted to take both customers’ worries into consideration and reiterate that we are here for everyone.

 

Interested in learning more about InfinityED and their mission?

Follow them on social media to stay up to date on the latest and greatest in non-profit education and sustainability.

Learn More

Campaign-specific header images were also developed for the company’s various social media pages. These focused on students bouncing back from e-learning struggles, and featured membership promotions.

Probably the largest portion of this project though, was designing the website. Starting with the bare bones of a just a footer and navigation menu, her web developer and I teamed up to create a buzzing, fun, eye-catching website as a centralized informational hub for potential customers. Featuring numerous web pages such as an about page, membership sales, and a “meet the tutors” page, this website not only communicates information well, but in an eye-catching, on-brand, friendly way.

 

Self-Reflection:

This client project was definitely a test on my web design skills. While I’d done tons of website designs and prototypes for school, I had never done one for a real client prior to this. This involved a ton of research and even more of my time, but was totally worth it. To create a successful website that communicates the company’s tone and aesthetic effectively, and seeing it as a live website, out there on the real-life internet as opposed to a prototype, was, and still is a really spectacular feeling.

GVC’s “So What’s The Deal?” vlog series

Posted on by Rhea Diehl

GVC’s “So What’s The Deal?” vlog series

motion graphics | illustration | branding

Challenge:

Utilizing various skills, develop a video blog series and branding elements revolving around diversity and inclusion in the workplace and mainstream media.

Design Solution:

During the time I spent at my internship, I was given the responsibility of developing volume one of our VLOG series at Global View Communications. The goal was to put something out there that gets people talking about D & I, and gets them to form opinions and speak out. This included basic practices such as motion graphics animation, character design, and audio development. This particular volume revolves around inclusion within the LGBTQIA community, launched in alignment with Pride Month in June. Starting with the logo, we visualized a typographic concept to appeal to our corporate partners and followers on social media. My team and I found inspiration from various sources, such as the news segment “Do You Buy That?” by FiveThirtyEight, infographics, experiences, and more. 

With creative assets of original design, the vlogs even include custom characters that you’ll see throughout the series. These characters are designed with their own personalities in mind.

Following my internship, I was asked to come back as a contract junior designer by the CEO, Greg Almeida. After creating several more vlogs for the series under GVC, our projections for social media engagement were met, and the design solution was deemed successful.

Self-Reflection:

This vlog project was definitely a learning curve at first. The first video in the series took a solid couple of months to complete, as I was doing all the animations from scratch the first time around. This impractical turnaround time prompted me search for a better way to streamline the animations, and introduced me to the wonderful world of AE Plugins! I was able to use plugins to animate my illustrations, and took the production time from 2 months to 2 weeks. And then one week. And then three days. I personally believe that this discovery was crucial to my time management skills as a designer, and without this project prompting me to search out an alternative, I might have never learned about the other ways I could improve as a designer by becoming faster. 

Interested in learning more about Global View Communications and their mission?

Follow them on social media to stay up to date on the latest and greatest in human resources, talent acquisition, company culture, and staying inclusive in the workplace.

Learn More