Brand Identity

Along with several peers, I co-founded a project to showcase the personal stories and recollections of students, alumni and faculty at The King's College in New York City in an effort to raise money to combat the institution's financial troubles.

As the sole designer on our team, I was responsible for crafting a visual identity to represent the project across our website and prepared social media assets for our supporters. We set several parameters: first, our brand would neither conflict with, nor match, the blue & white color scheme of The King's College. Second, it was important to visually establish that we operated with the blessing of the institution, but distinctly independent of it.

To establish this duality of institutional distance and connection, we received permission to adopt the lion symbol from the college's crest, pairing it with a neutral, monochrome color palate. The addition of both a serif and "handwritten" font gave the project's materials and classic, artisan quality to evoke the personal letters we showcased.

It was important to use a design language that drew attention to our cause rather than itself. We also desired a brand that reflected Manhattan's Financial District, where the institution at the center of our project was located. Imagery of both the Financial District and the Empire State Building (where the College was located previously) along with headshots of our project's contributors were used. All images were converted to grayscale with a sepia wash.

Upon launch, the project grew quickly, amassing tens of thousands of views and expanding to a large collection of entries. We also attracted the attention of several media outlets, including The New York Times, which interviewed me personally for an article about the College.