Spotlight: Social Equity

spotlightOn : Social Equity

Although much of the work we do for non-profit organizations is pro bono, money is no measure for the amount of time we spend on these projects and how much we take each cause to heart.

Bold Vision LA

…is a multi-year initiative that is attempting to help youth of color in Los Angeles County realize their fullest potential. We were honored to be asked to help create their printed community report.

We worked with Bold Vision to adapt their existing brand, and to introduce new motifs and formats to take advantage of the printed piece.

Arlington Garden in Pasadena

…is a community garden in Pasadena, open every day, totally free. Their mission, aside from providing a respite to people and a refuge to plants and animals, is education. And they manage to find time to produce some pretty tasty orange marmalade.

Communications that we create for the Garden include annual reports and guides including the recent pocket botanical guide to the native flora. We also help in branding of products such as AGP’s coveted marmalade, which is made from oranges harvested by volunteers from the garden’s own orchard, then canned in nearby Sierra Madre. The delicious jelly is one of AGP’s most reliable fund-raisers.

Bookshop.org

…was created for independent booksellers as an answer to the online dominance of Amazon. It gives true independent bookstores the tools to accept, process and fulfill orders online with a catalog and user experience that rivals the corporate giants.

We help Bookshop.org from time to time with reports and printed marketing pieces. These pages are from a Publisher’s Weekly wrap that took over the front and back covers and the inside-front and inside-back pages.

The Gamble House

…in Pasadena is one of the most recognizable residences in America. For decades it’s been a nexus of the Arts and Crafts movement as well as an icon of architectural preservation. Recently it’s also become a hub for arts education, and a place of gathering and celebration for diverse groups of visitors.

We pitch in with whatever the Gamble House needs from us. Most recently we’ve taken on the design of their in-house magazine, The Lantern. For our inaugural issue, we became so enthusiastic that we threw in a redesign.

Advancement Project California

…is a data-driven organization concerned with equitability of public programs and distribution of public resources. In other words, they use research, math and charts to fight on behalf of traditionally overlooked segments of the population.

We produced over a dozen of these reports which represent the backbone of APCA’s work. They’re meant for policy makers and community leaders, and are packed with detailed recent information pertaining to the various topics of focus.

We often created materials for APCA that were outside of their core identity. Champions for Equity Awards is an example where we helped APCA create branding and collateral for this annual event.

Another sub-brand we created for Advancement Project. This logo and related collateral and signage were for a conference in which educators, policymakers, students and other experts met to discuss and brainstorm California’s K–12 strategies.

ACLU

…is one of the most important civil rights organizations in the world. We’ve been fortunate to help them out from time to time on a variety of projects. Here are just a few examples.

Genes and Gitmo are a couple quick infographics we created to be used online and in newsletters at the time. I believe we did these longer graphics as well as more compact, abbreviated versions.

ACLU had the brilliant concept of creating a baseball card to commemorate the two-millionth deportation during the Obama administration. We researched nostalgic card designs to give the right irony in calling out this dubious accomplishment.

This was a quick web and social media campaign for their Pocket Constitutions. If I remember right, ACLU gave us the tag “Ever wish you had the constitution in your pocket?” along with the police barricade image. Then we did some brainstorming and kicked in the “Freedom/liberty in your pocket” versions along with the funny images.

Small ads for a web campaign critical of the creepy E-Verify program. I think I got the look from old Eastern European political posters.

Obviously we are not motion graphics designers. But I’m still happy with this old campaign for Banned Books Week. This was actually a Flash animation optimized for web, not a video.