I was brought into GoFundMe during a time where leadership wanted to tell a more simplified, buttoned-up version of itself. Whether that through messaging or overall brand expression. My first order of business was to own and build out their first end-to-end brand guidelines¹. I was also tasked with doing extensive OOH marketing expression R&D², and fully support ongoing initiatives like GoFindYou³ – a continued effort to built trust and support Black joy year round. I also fully owned and supported GoFundMe’s 2022 Summit⁴ presentation and swag for 400+.
At GoFundMe, there were, to an extent, brand guidelines. But they left much to interpretation. When and where should we use illustration? Where and how do we use color? Is this photo too non-profity? (If you had to ask, it probably was yes). These were some of the questions among many many more that would be answered during this 3+ month process building out the end-to-end guidelines.
During this time, I worked with brand copywriter Kaley Aposporos and Senior Director of Brand, Alex Anderson to develop guidelines that could both be scan-able, or deep-divable for marketing leads to develop cross-functional brand trust. I wanted the brand guidelines to be clean and modern, pulling in elements that highlighted where we were pushing the brand like large type on landing pages, and soft edges that I was exploring with marketing expression.
At GoFundMe I did research and development for exploring color, as well as marketing expression/brand systems. From the start, the GoFundMe Green was so bright that I knew that they needed something dark that it would both compliment and be accessible. I extensively researched secondary colors that were warm and inviting, unexpected, and complimentary, as well explored design systems that could be used as marketing expression all-up. Friendly framing, UI as language, message driven, secondary type, type developed by community, and utilizing the GoFundMe Ray as shape were some of the directions I explored.
Lastly, I had the wonderful opportunity to help work on a continued initiative of GoFundMe called GoFindYou. GoFindYou is a place to celebrate stories of Black joy often overlooked by grief and trauma in the media. We see beautiful stories of Black joy on GoFundMe every day, and this space is to highlight those stories of Black joy as well as act as a space for inspiration, tips, and community.
Through 2022, I took art direction from brand strategist/design agency Neon Butterfly and helped realize it from early figma mocks to fully fleshed-out pages with design systems and 1-to-1 mobile mocks. From here I built out a fully-realized prototype in Figma to hand-off to product to get UX tested, and then worked with the wordpress dev team to develop it into the microsite that it is today – gofundme.com/blackjoy .
GoFindYou ended up having the best conversion rate of any GoFundMe outreach program, exceeded fundraiser creation goal by 42%, a 3% increase in Brand Trust and a 4% increase in Perception of shared values—exceeding all goals and KPIs.
Overview.
While working at Microsoft, I worked as a Comms and Visual Design Lead on the Enterprise Commercial CTO team (ECCTO). Here I was responsible for sending out major comms for one of Microsoft's CTO, Lorraine Bardeen, as well as all other comms work internally for presenting to client . Here I was given the opportunity to explore a brand logo and brand
ANATOMY.
We like to believe we’re soft yet firm, so we’ve rounded out to corners a bit throughout the logo’s apex. 2. The top of the t is reduced and chopped to create a “signal”, following the natural 18° angles in the font Segoe.
EXTENDED.
The ECCTO logo should be used primarily with a color signal in the yellow color specified. A solid black or white version can be used in a secondary context.
Expressive.
In special circumstances, you can use icon imagery to replace the signal. This is best done sparingly, with clear intent and purpose to celebrate an occasion, value, or achievement meaningful to ECCTO.
Color.
ECCTO’s visual language uses a spectrum of color combined into light and dark gradients and broken out into tonal color families. We also use a range of tonal black + grey to support this system.
Colors Applied.
ECCTO’s color palette features gradients that work well as backgrounds and washes utilizing colors that represent clarity, innovation, and leadership. These washes work well as backgrounds or as section dividers. The “light angle” featured in these washes is 18°, which is the same as the angle of the signal in the ECCTO logo.
Illustration.
the illustration language for ECCTO pulling features directly from the logo including the 18° angle, as well as honing key-characteristics in illustrations in the “signal” yellow