TOWNrelief

August 20, 2020

BRAND DESIGN AND STRATEGY, product design, community organizing, copy WRITING, MARKETING

THE CHALLENGE

COVID-19 is having a direct impact on our small town economy and health. Many community members were trying to donate their time via social media, but it was unorganized and getting lost in all of the other messaging and content. How would I make these vital volunteer connections to bring relief to those in need during the COVID-crisis?

THE SOLUTION

I was determined to prototype a new product that helped make volunteer connections easy. I built out a solid brand with clear brand messaging, a simple and easy-to-use user experience, and created an online social presence in partnership with www.townmag.co.

I had over 50 volunteers use this platform to post their information. The one downfall was that I could not know (and for good reason) if the product was working. I sent various follow up surveys to volunteers to see if they were reached out to for relief - and the rate of use was around 25%, which exceeded my expetations.

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B-Stock

August 2, 2018

The Team

Jennifer Wehrmaker, VP of Marketing · Melissa Gieringer, Head of Communications · Beatt Productions, Videography and Production · Rajvi Bhatt · Sr. Email Marketer · Jennifer Cho, Jr Designer · Kush Patel, Jr Marketer · Mary Delawder, Sr. Developer

The Challenge

The secondary market for returned, excess, and broken inventory doesn’t have the best reputation; think middlemen, back-alley transactions, craigslist meet-ups. B-Stock’s product offering is a platform that allows businesses to sell their overstock in a more transparent and direct way to other business buyers. How do you brand and market a tool that transforms an industry, especially one that hasn’t changed for years?

The Solution

We decided after a design-thinking offsite, that a rebrand of the business was necessary to build trust within the industry from both buyers and sellers and establish ourselves as thought leaders in the liquidation space. We wanted to, not only create a solid brand, but to take it a step further with a brand story. Our goal was to confront the ‘seedy’ side of the industry, and to show that our platform was the solution to the liquidation problem. We set out to update brand design, create relevant content, relaunch a new corporate website and with a bit of 5th grade humor, confront the issues that plague the industry with a specific campaign upon launch.

B-Stock Rebrand

I lead and executed B-Stock’s brand and corporate website launch, along with collaborating with the communications director to come up with campaign and new brand messaging. I touched everything, from user experience to writing and directing promotional videos. Our goal was to make B-Stock’s brand a more specific and trustworthy brand within the liquidation space, along with adding a bit of character and humor. The marketing team launched the “Everybody Liquidates” and “Bulk Lots of Love” campaign to promote the new brand and site launch and make some waves within the industry.

DESIGN and BRAND GUIDELINES

WEBSITE DESIGN

campaign creation, Video production, brand story-telling, writing, directing

USER EXPERIENCE DESIGN

TownMag.co

November 1, 2016

REBRAND - The Challenge

The year 2020 provided a time for reflection, and as the founder and creator of TownMag.co, I knew it needed a rebrand after 5 years running. With growth in mind, and more definitive brand and cultural values, I needed to make sure this brand represented everything that TownMag.co had become.

The Solution

I created a new brand that was more inclusive of other communities and school systems if this product were to expand. I also made sure to make the brand more accessible from typefaces to color scheme. The product itself has been improved, with more accessible way for users to submit their alumni stories via video, voice, or text. Read more about it here.

TownMag.co First 5 Years

The original Challenge

High school is an incredibly important and challenging time in life and big decisions are made right when students graduate. American public schools are like bubbles, and though safe, they can shield a lot of important information. Alumni of public schools usually leave and never return to tell their stories, especially young adults on the cusp of their careers. How can I create a space for alumni to share their stories with high school students?

The original Solution

I set out to create a product in the form of a website that allowed alumni to share their own stories for current high school students to read. help future generations reach new heights and discover a multitude of divergent paths in life beyond the doors of Watertown High School.

Community engagement, activism, product design

5a1f10ad84688.image.jpg — Website offers way for alumni to share stories of their lives

WATERTOWN — Watertown High School alumni Colleen Murphy wants to share the stories of her fellow graduates. To that end, she has created the website Town, found at www.townmag.co. Read more from the Town Times.

Brand, Product Design

Community Engagement, Activism, User Experience, Press

Townies Talk

We took TOWN and pushed it into reality. In April of 2018 and 2019, I partnered with WHS to host a Townies Talk Panel at Watertown High School and an Alumni Networking Dinner at Fino Wood Fired Pizza. Alumni Story Tellers were invited to return to the high school to share their stories, answer questions, and inspire current WHS students. We were excited to be off-line and in real-life, to share ideas, and inspire the community! We really appreciate the teachers who encouraged students to attend the event and we think the 90 minutes was valuable time that not only helped students understand specific careers paths, but also life in general.

Alumni Wisdom

WATERTOWN APRIL 2019 - In April, Watertown High School students discussed life after high school with recent WHS alumni. The event was organized by alumna Colleen Murphy… Read more ->

Town Magazine shows life after high school

WATERTOWN APRIL 2018 - "The materials that we produce and the stories that we share, can be easily applied to guidance councilors helping students figure out college decisions or teachers helping a student cope through a tough time. Many alumni are open to connecting with students and answering questions about career choices and student loans." Read more at the Town Times.

Behailu Academy

September 2, 2016

The Challenge

Behailu offered graphic design and photography courses to their after-school students. I was tasked with teaching them to use the Adobe Suite and the fundamentals of graphic design. What curriculum strategy will empower young high school students to excel at learning the principals of graphic design, the tools and basics of Photoshop, Illustrator, After Effects and inDesign, while creating higher self esteem and exploring themselves and their own power?

The Solution

After my first semester at Behailu, the second semester allowed me to refine and change my approach. Students were not interested in the technicalities of graphic design or learning about the pen tool; I realized quickly I needed to engage them in a different, more meaningful way. The one thing teenagers are most intrigued with? Themselves. I made sure to incorporate self-exploration throughout the remainder of the curriculum. Quickly, the projects they were completing were beautiful, honest, and skilled. View full curriculum here.

Looking inward: Photoshop Portrait Double Exposure Self-Portraits

Objective: Students will learn to give a productive critique of each others work. Every student will have a chance to show their work but will not talk about it until after we critique it. We will start on a new tutorial about typography and image and how to combine them effectively.

Exploring Emotions and Movement: Black and White Self-Portraits

Objective: Students are going to use their photography and Photoshop skills to explore how to express emotion and movement through their own portraits.

Power In the Palm Of Your Hand Photoshop Collage

Objective: Students will work together to take photographs of their own hands and through design and self reflection, they will envision what lies in the palm of their own hands, acknowledging their own power to attain their dreams and goals.

Poetry Partnership

Objective: Partnering with the Behailu poetry class, we will be taking students poems and laying them out on a poster for them to display while combining visuals that represent the poem.

Wildest Imagination: Surrealism

Objective: Students are going to use their wildest imagination and put our Photoshop collaging skills to the test. Jumping into what Surrealism is and the history of surrealism, students will then create their own surrealist scenes.

Combining Text and Image

Objective: Students explore how typography and image can be combined to create meaning, and how to combine them effectively.

Faraday

January 2, 2015

The Team

Michael Lattig, VP of Marketing · Adam Vollmer, Founder and CEO · Lily Roosevelt, Marketer

The Challenge

The bicycle industry is an industry where there are many one time purchases of the product. Successful brands however, convert their buyers into brand ambassadors and into lifestyle brands. How does an electric bicycle start up not only sell their product and lifestyle brand, but encourage others to sell it for them?

The Solution

In an effort to engage our customers past the point of just buying our product, we started building a brand that focused on the electric bike lifestyle and also encouraged our buyers to become brand ambassadors. We created the Faraday Riders Club and amped up social media outreach. We used the solid marketing base of the Faraday community to launch a new product via kickstarter, and raised above and beyond the goal to get the bike into production.