Matibabu Foundation
Brand Revitalization & Website Re-Design
Kenya (MF-K) is an indigenous community health initiative with the experience and systems in place to meet donor requirements as well as the needs of the communities they serve.
When my Rootid co-founder, Andrew and I were first hired by the Matibabu Foundation in 2009, Matibabu was one organization with a US-based foundation and Kenyan-based NGO. As our re-branding work began, their board quickly realized that the organization needed to be divided, so the US-based organization was renamed Tiba Foundation, leaving the original name “Matitbabu” to its Kenyan counter-part.
For the Matibabu Foundation in Kenya, they wanted a visual language that was clean and modern while still staying true to their original logo and roots in the Kenyan flag. They have a very deep sense of community that we wanted to highlight and functionality-wise give a way for many layers of information to be accessed quickly and easily. We also needed to be sensitive to internet speeds in Kenya, so this site is very simple and to the point, with optimized images and little to no “bells and whistles”. Though their site has not officially launched yet, you can see it under construction.
Ian Mitroff :: Website and Blog Integration
Ian Mitroff is widely regarded as the founder of the discipline of crisis management. He specializes in crisis prevention, strategic planning, and the design of ethical work environments. Known for his thinking and writing on a wide range of business and societal issues, Dr. Mitroff has published over 350 papers and articles and almost 30 books.
I was connected with Ian through another client and fellow designer Sandra Kelch and was brought in to design him a website that truly showcased his expertise. Developed using WordPress, the site highlights his speaking, a game he created to help his clients think through their crisis management techniques, and has quick access to his most recent publications. Originally he had a separate blog and professional site, which have now been integrated under one roof.
Tchell DePaepe :: Photographer
Website Redesign, Logo & Icon Design
Tchell DePaepe came to me to freshen up her branding. She was in the process of sending out a direct mail piece to Art Directors throughout the Bay Area and wanted a more sophisticated look that highlighted her personality.
We began by designing her a new logo and creating a custom icon for her to use along with it (see sticker image). We then redesigned her website using a simple WordPress template and integrated an easy-to-use gallery so that she could showcase her amazing photography and update content herself.
LockboxCombos.com :: A Mobile Application
In June, 2011, we were contacted by an old client of mine Nina Plotner. She and her business partner Tammy Marsh had an innovative idea that needed development. They wanted to create a website and companion mobile site that allowed real estate agents to load their listings and lockbox combinations into a secured online database. Only licensed real estate agents would be able to access eachother’s combos in order to show homes to clients more seamlessly. LockboxCombos.com and its mobile companion site lockboxcombos.com/m allow users quick access on the go. They are currently in their Beta Launch for Los Angeles County, and the site is for licensed real estate agents only, but you can take a look through their external pages to see our design and basic site building.
Re-branding & Strategic Marketing :: DigitWhiz
When I started working with DigitWhiz in December 2010, who knew where we would end up. Founder and CEO Kasey Brown wanted to change the design of her math game website so that it felt more “real”. The games she and her programmer, Elliot Feingold, had built had amazing content, but needed some help in the delivery and messaging. Our intent was to for students to get excited to play and for parents and teachers to receive the stats they needed to assess student progress. This incredible math literacy program is so exciting and I think will really help kids and people in general gain confidence in their math skills in a way that is accessible and fun. DigitWhiz’ core values and ideas, “DigitWhiz delivers math literacy in a meaningful way — through games, assessments, rewards, social media integration and so much more! True math mastery stems from evaluating current abilities and getting the right help to fill in the gaps.” — and I believe this teacher-built and kid approved website has the potential to go all the way!
Update:
DigitWhiz will begin its Beta Launch between August 15th and August 20th. Visit www.digitwhiz.com after August 10th to ask for an invitation into the Beta. They are only accepting 500 administrators, parents, teachers and kids for Phase 1 so sign up early!
Before pic:
Introducing the “NEW” HRA Studios & Foundation
As many know, I have been on the Board of Directors for the Hollywood Rock Academy (now renamed HRA Studios & Foundation) for the last 5 years or so. Matt calls me his “Jiminy Cricket” and ultimately, that is exactly what I am. I am usually not the one with the crazy ideas…like re-branding the company and launching a new website in under a week. But this time, it was me playing the role of Maverick Board Member, and it was kind of fun!
When we finally decided on a new name at last Thursday night’s meeting, I threw myself into high gear and pulled off re-branding the company (new logo and all) and launching a whole new website in yes, 1 week on the nose. Now granted, I have been a member of this community for a long time and I know the organization inside and out, so my normal research, need gathering, and visual language creation/ implementation phases were not needed this round, but still…I am pretty excited. And it could not have been more timely. One of HRA’s Foundation students just blew up all over YouTube and was featured on Good Morning America this morning and The Today Show yesterday. So the new HRA Studios & Foundation needs to be looking its very best! – - Check out the new site! – -
Open Car + Bike Show Benefiting Veterans & Children
North Bay Summer Get-Together :: June 4, 2011
Bob and G Productions have put on small Bay Area Car + Bike Shows for the last few years and decided to go for the big one in 2011. They rented out the Solano County Fairgrounds and asked us to create them a brand and help promote the event to a wider audience.
Our goals were “family friendly” & “nostalgia for the good ‘ol days” (see left).
Though the show’s main purpose is fun, they also wanted to make sure it had HEART so we have joined forces with Swords to Plowshares and Bikers Against Child Abuse directing all proceeds from the event to these to charities. Swords to Plowshares, is a not-for-profit veteran service organization based here in the Bay Area and Bikers Against Child Abuse, creates a safer environment for abused children nation-wide.
If you are a car, bike or just fun festival lover, definitely come check it out.
More information can be found on their website www.northbaycarshow.com
Two Entrepreneurs : One Great Idea
Swapping Made Easy :: Craigslist Meets Social Network
Clients Jamie and Gail have a vision. They want to create a series of friendly, fun, easy to use, and community oriented websites that help people trade items from their homes.
They already had one site launched called Shoe&Bag Swaps, but wanted us to build a brand that would span all of the sites they had in mind. We began by talking about the core values of the company as a whole, how these values might differ depending on site theme, and who they wanted to reach (ie. who are their users). We then created a brand identity/visual language that could be adjusted appropriately depending on site theme. Site #1: ClosetSwaps.com will launch in April, so check it out and start Swapping!
Composed :: College Essays Made Easy
Brand, Identity & Website For A New Business Owner
Small business owner, Nina had a thriving college essay and writing enrichment service that needed to quickly turn into a full-fledged company. She was rapidly gaining more students and realized she needed a business card…oh and a website so that parents & students could easily access all the information they needed. That is usually important too.
We spent time discussing her short and long-term goals, what kind of look & feel best represented her professionally as an educator, and made sure to include her fun and down-to-earth personality. What we came up with was a brand that plays off the college application process and built the rest of her identity materials and website around that idea.
View her Identity Materials.
Visit EssaysComposed.com to see her website.
Communication Design for a Better World
Affecting positive change both at home and abroad.
It has been almost a year since I met James and Arthur of Schaffer&Combs, the management consulting team that was hired on to re-structure what was then the Matibabu Foundation. When James and Arthur came on-board, it was like a breath of fresh air had filled the organization and I knew, “This was going to be good.”
At the time, I had been working on re-branding the organization, but I knew something was missing. James and Arthur came in, created not only a new model for the donor-recipient relationship, based on partnership, rigorous metrics, and flexibility but a “new way of telling stories about people in impoverished regions.”… and make “the Tiba Foundation the first American NGO to tell the story, as part of its fundraising effort, of whole human beings in Africa, with names, families, homes, work, and successes as well as sufferings.” (Schaffer&Combs, June 27, 2010) After that, for all intensive purposes, we started the branding process over…which I was actually very happy to do. Matibabu Foundation changed to Tiba Foundation, we built a website around the above principles, and the rest is history.
This month we begin work on a second project with Schaffer&Combs. ParkPod, LLC sells electric vehicle charging stations. They’re made in Germany, designed in California and raising awareness about the infrastructure solutions that will power the Electric Vehicle revolution in key business sectors such as Hospitality, Retail, and Building Management. We are currently working on creating a comprehensive visual language for this company that is clean, sharp, and modern without looking futuristic.
OperaWorks Alumni Website LAUNCHES!
As part of our ongoing process to help OperaWorks expand in new exciting directions we have built them an “Alumni Only” website. OperaWorks is already a leader in its field, providing a unique and powerful learning experience for its members, and this alumni website is only the first step in giving those singers, composers, and other performers a place to share experiences and continue to support one another once they’ve left the program. It is a difficult industry, and everyone needs a safe haven for exploring new ideas.
This is only the beginning of our opera professional development campaign…
SO STAY TUNED!
Some areas of the site are open to the public—go poke around—see if you can find them!
Healthy Thyroid Center – Branding, Identity & Collateral Materials
One of our first new clients here at GSM was Sonya from the Healthy Thyroid Center. She came to us to revitalize her brand so that her look and feel would appeal to the broader medical community. When we sat down with her, we went through our “branding questionnaire” discussing the core values of her business and how that could best manifest itself through color palettes, imagery and typography. Check out her portfolio!
