Design Portfolio

Logo, Mark and Signature

Initially, I wasn't asked to help Newman improve their Identity assets. I came to them and implored them to make changes to achieve a much smarter look. I had long been critical of the look and feel they put off, though I love the school.

I called a meeting with individuals at the school that I believed were in positions to make these decisions or who had an institutional memory of the school to help inform decisions to change, while at the same time honoring the schools spirit and history.

The school turned this into an "Identity Committee" which determined the values, voice and tone of the school and to begin enforcing a common visual identity on all the school's touch-points.

Most stakeholders resisted the changes to the mark and logo at first, but eventually, most of the changes I pushed were accepted.

I have included the logo prsenetation booklet I gave to school. While the particular version of the mark was rejected at that time, below you can see what the school has been using now for the last few years and many have come to love and appreciate. It works much better in almost all applications.

Logo Presentation Booklet [Originally rejected, but most changes eventually accepted]

Desktop Wallpapers, Banners, Signage

The first example is in use on all the school's computers in their computer lab, their teacher laptops and their students' chromebooks. It replaced an eye sort of an old pixelated version of their multicolor logo with an eye searing white background.

Fonts and Colors

The brand's primary font pairing can be seen in use in this slideshow presentation along with supporting colors in its infographics.

Principal's State of the School Address (Slideshow)

Student Portal

While this was never implemented, I suggested targeting the school's different audiences with different landing pages with information and design specific to each. While Newman's branding is classy and somewhat understated, it makes sense to deliver to students and athletes something more colorful, playful and exciting.

This mock up was simply to demonstrate that just because our colors are blue and gray, doesn't mean we can't use other colors too. Part of having a simple logo with a strong silhouette is that it no longer requires color to do its job.

Website Concept Mock Up

Billboard Campaign

A couple of years ago, I designed some billboards for Newman. This year, I have designed more for them and am working with them still to design more so they can put a new one up each month.

Some of these target potential students. Some target potential supports. Some target parents of potential students.

I have pushed to target potential students with messages of self-actualization over factoids and stats.

Meet the Comets

Internally, there is dissatisfaction with the graphic quality of our mascot. Also, it is not original and is in use by other high schools and was once used by a college.

I sought to find a design for Newman to adopt as it's new mascot. The school did not do a good job of controlling the narrative of how and why this design came about and why it respresents us. It was dropped without warning on new merch one day. Many community members did not want to buy the merch.

While everyone is resistant to change - in this case it is necessary and good. Eventually the mascot will change, but Newman did not make the switch in the end this time.

Day of Giving

Newman made a massive change in how it raised money for its operating budget in the 2021-2022 school year. Instead of transactional things (like raffle tickets and having students sell a certain number of items), Newman started a Day of Giving campaign to build a relationship with its community and celebrate its mission and vision with that community.

We neeed to explain why people should want to give (in a non-transactional way) and show how much it is appreciated.

I was on the team to pull this off the first year and helped ideation and especially graphic design. The logo is recognizable and, importantly, includes the date of the event.

Postcards

I designed the post cards the school sent out to explain to its community what this new event was. Some of the graphics I came up with for the postcard didn't fit on it, but were used on a webpage I made give more information.

Day of Giving Website

Social Media Campaign

I made the graphics for the social media posts the school made in the run up to the event. These graphics are still used each year by the school, with the updated logo.

On the day of the event, the school posted this simple message on all its accounts and switched its banners and hero image slide show to simply show this all day.

The Newman Fund

The operating budget has been branded "The Newman Fund" and we needed to explain what this fund does. When people see we raise a lot of money on the day of giving, they think "what are they going to buy with that money?"

I took it upon myself to create these line art graphics to answer that question for our community in a visual, at-a-glance way. To this day, these graphics continue to be used the in school's appeals.

Newman Fund Page

New Day of Giving Page

Re-design / Modernization

I helped St. Mary's School with the website and Google Suite management. They hadn't updated their website in many years when I decided to help them out. Like with Newman, I explained what kind of photography they needed to start using. I also re-themed their site (I didn't change or make this site). All the sponsor logos at the bottom of the page, I had to remake myself as vector graphics to make them look good on the new site.

Website re-design (Before & After)

Logos, Posters, Jerseys and Merch

Over the last 10 years, I have run many clubs for students in middle school and high school. I always take care to make cool branding for these to motivate a love of the club from the members.

Smash Tournament Poster 1

Smash Tournament Poster 2