Artists Creating Together (ACT)

Design Project Center

Senior project

2022–2023

DYLAN BOWDEN, DEVYN MCVANNEL, SIENNA PARMELEE, KATIE SHANTZ

Artists Creating Together (ACT) approached us for assistance in creating a cohesive brand system. ACT is a non-profit in Grand Rapids that focuses on supplying arts to individuals with disabilities. Our proposal for the brand was to ensure clarity, consistency, and scalability throughout all applications as well as the brand and sub-brands.

Preliminary Research

We started by conducting a comprehensive audit of everything related to the brand, taking time to examine every aspect carefully. Our audit revealed three areas of improvement with the current brand system–a lack of clarity, consistency, and scalability.
When it came to clarity, we found brand communications and storytelling to be seldom concise. Artists Creating Together’s brand was presented inconsistently across channels, and asset and logo integrity was often lost in small use cases.

The Visual System

Direction one focused on standardizing Artists Creating Together’s existing brand.
Direction two employed the Creative Cube pattern as confetti to showcase important elements.
Direction three reimagined the brandmark in sentence case and highlighted important typography.
The client decided to move forward with the first direction, but with elements of the confetti from the second direction and language from the third direction. Ultimately, the brand became a bit of all three.
We wanted imagery to be warm, bright, and inviting while being displayed preciously using framing systems and gallery walls.

Impact Report

The Impact Report template was built in Artists Creating Together’s existing platform, Wix. To bolster fundraising for Artists Creating Together’s programs, the Impact Report spotlights stories from students. Additionally, to ensure the report was easy for the client to update in future years, we utilized a content management system and components with less unnecessary complexity.

Donor Outreach

Business System

The business system is used to ensure clarity within the ACT branding, when a Donor Receives a Letterhead or Business Card they are also recieving a piece of art.
The letterhead features a yearly art piece on the backside that corresponds with that year’s events. Business cards use portraits of each staff member hand-drawn by students.
Pamphlet

Sub-Brands & Events

We stylized the Open Studio to be more consistent with the already-existing Creative Cube as well as giving each ACT group its own visual identity.
Events were stylized to be focused around a yearly art piece with corresponding pieces and colors to match.

Swag

Custom t-shirts, stickers, and pencils were also created to extend the ACT brand.

Templates

Creating templates in Microsoft was the best solution as they have already used these programs. To ensure the team could use the brand effectively after their time with us was done, we spent time with them to train and answer any questions.
We created a template that would work for the previous presentations we gathered from the brand audit. While creating the template, it was important to ensure this document could be recognizable for the brand and relate to all applications.

Brand Kit

Static Prototypes
To deploy the brand, we deployed an online brand hub including gudelines, logo files, video tutorials, and template downloads
Visit the Brand Kit