Brand-Aligned Design for Nonprofit Boys & Girls Clubs of America
The Problem
The corporate headquarters of Boys & Girls Clubs of America (BGCA) had an over-allocated internal team that couldn’t produce upcoming partnership materials. With deadlines quickly approaching, they weighed their options: more junior freelancers tended to go rogue, and agencies left BGCA feeling unheard. Their brand guide wasn’t getting the attention it deserved, leading to endless costly, time-consuming rounds of revisions. These projects had loose copywriting, but they needed thoughtful perspective and design skills to pull them together.
The Solution
I was referred to BGCA with a recommendation about my attention to detail, which was attractive given their past experiences with outsourcing. They also knew that I was more senior and that I could work efficiently and accurately to meet their turnaround times. At the time, I was working with FatRabbit Creative as Creative Director. For this project, I worked through FatRabbit but handled the projects nearly completely independently from start to finish, ensuring the organization was getting the responsive, professional attention it needed. I served as account/project manager as well as designer and production manager.
The first project commemorated a partnership with the NFL Foundation to achieve further partnerships and grants. I thoroughly reviewed their brand guide and provided recommendations on the content and direction, working quickly and communicating frequently with the organization.
The end product was very well received. In fact, it led to other projects, such as a printed trifold brochure and a companion digital version. They were delighted with the results — unquestionably on-brand while elevating the content they drafted to achieve their goals.
The organization went on to receive partnerships from the NFL Foundation and earn additional grants in the 6 months that followed.
The brand guide for the national organization is appropriately extensive, weighing in at about 60 pages. I was approached for the projects for the corporate office in part because I could be trusted to follow its guidance and interpret it appropriately given the project objectives.
