The Greater Cincinnati Energy Alliance was my first professional design gig. It was a huge lesson in trying to bridge the gap between what supersmart people want to communicate and how audiences want information.
I made tons of illustrations and took as many pictures as I could to use in our materials.
Some background on the organization: The Greater Cincinnati Energy Alliance was an energy efficiency nonprofit located in downtown Cincinnati. It received something like $40 Million in funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to ramp up energy efficiency in the area, focusing on home and building owners, energy contractors and installers, and engaging governing organizations locally.
The branding was developed by LPK, which was a super smart investment by the Energy Alliance. The logo was really well thought out, and the Interstate font family was very appropriate - familiar but fresh and modern. And there was a multi-color swoopy wave as an additional asset.
It was a really good set of ingredients to work with.
A disclaimer of sorts: I've become more sensitive to contrast issues with digital colors for visually impaired folks. Throughout the designs here there's lots of light blue, orange, and yellows which don't pass the 3:1 contrast ratio. I'm better now. Sorry :(
We had a few websites, all Wordpress blog sites. I was given lots of free rein for layout and design. I really fell in love with how a blog website structures information, with a journey starting on an efficiently messaged home page, and ending in a very dense and wonky blog article.
I was a real photo snob. Almost all photos were taken by me, or by others in the office. It was early in my design career and I felt that using stock photography was insincere in any situation, especially for a non-profit that wanted to build relationships in the region. And it would save on spending dollars at Getty. I didn't get stock photography then, but I'm a little better now :)
Blog articles were my chance to to do some illustration, which I had never done professionally before. I eventually landed on a style based on architectural blueprint design - blue strokes with no fill and just a few levels of stroke width.
Another important part of non-profit marketing in my mind was to habitually take pictures to feature in marketing materials and social media.
I manned a Canon Rebel at most events, the results of which can be seen above (and throughout). In what might be a step too far, I would try to give each picture some sort of orange to blue filter treatment to align with our vibrant brand colors.
It was 'all hands on deck' at trade shows and I frequently had to stand behind a table and talk to folks about energy efficiency at events like the annual Home and Garden Show at the Duke Energy Center.
I got to see firsthand how engagement with our designs really worked, especially for a subject not as immediately communicative or top-of-mind to an audience such as energy efficiency.
We frequently partnered with other similarly-minded organizations, like the City of Cincinnati, the U.S. Department of Energy, and Green Umbrella, which let me play with some other branding too.
I'm pretty sure the City of Cincinnati's branding was created by LPK too, so our brands worked well together, in my opinion.
Above was my first annual report opportunity, which I feel like I over-designed :/
