Girls Who Code is an international non-profit organization working to close the gender gap in technology and change the image of what a female identifying programmer looks like and does.
Role
Art Director
Design Lead
Client
Girls Who Code
Identifying visual language pipeline leaks.
As the ever first in-house creative I made it my first priority to bring creative processes from out-of-house to in-house. Defining Visual Language was the first portion of my design detective work. The brand asset library was very lean with no existing brand book. I took this as an opportunity to explore design directions within the work.
First experiment was to use the existing branding and to see how far it could stretch.
Introducing new colors.
Even though I could make the initial collateral work with the original colors, I found them limiting not only in range but also in accessibility. I experimented with the Girls Who Code after school program called "Clubs" and their curriculum. Still keeping things like abnormal form in mind to illustrate a learning brain in flux and motion.
First campaign. State of the Girls, Advocacy Report.
One of my most significant art direction pieces was 2019 Girls Who Code “State of The Girls” Advocacy Report. The report documents nationwide policy work and solutions to end the gender gap in tech.
I used this as an opportunity to combine original Girls Who Code branded teal with new campaign colors.
While ideating on visual storytelling, I thought about the origin of the web and the colors that were chosen to determine sequencing & user flow. These are the web defaults for every browser when there is no custom CSS. In the absence of CSS, browsers automatically determine a sequence of default hex codes to visualize things like hyperlinks.
When an available link is new, its default is Blue. When a link is currently active its default is Red. And when a link has been accessed its default is Purple. The word active stood out to me.
Red hues like Coral embraces us with warmth and nourishment to provide comfort and buoyancy in our continually shifting environment. Symbolizing our innate need for optimism and joyful pursuits, Coral embodies our desire for playful expression.
When coral is combined with the Girls Who Code teal it further promotes the premise of energetic bravery with the brand.
The report.
In the end I was able to design a 28 paged publication that was also available digitally on the Girls Who Code website. The publication was also featured in Wired Magazine.
The Event.
In conjunction to this I also had the amazing opportunity to expand these design elements to create the Congressional Leadership Panel event that released the 2019 Advocacy Report, hosted at the Library of Congress in DC. CEO Reshma Saujani along with Girls Who Code alumni were present to speak on the report highlights.
There was also an amazing panel to discuss innovative policy solutions to the gender gap in tech. Sen. Jacky Rosen, Sen. Shelley Moore, and Rep. Ayanna Pressley were all present to talk about the current state of women in tech.
Convincing C-Suite to undergo formal rebrand.
We were making great strides in the company and the visual hierarchy was improving, but I was still focused on the goal of a rebrand. I was determined to develop visual language through form and color and even by introducing new colors. But there was still a lot that was missing. This was bigger than just me implementing new typographic hierarchy and new accent colors. I needed to deconstruct the system that was in place.
New branding.
After I completed an extensive brand audit before and during my time at the company, it was presented to c-suite to win the case to undergo an official rebrand. I worked very closely with Brooklyn agency Hyperakt to develop smart and cohesive language that visualied our advocacy, our technology, and the power of girls.
I stayed close with their design team to develop typographic systems, color libraries and patterns. After the rebrand process was completed, I was able to even further organize our creative intake system and also educate the Girls Who Code colleagues on why the process was done, the value it brings to us, our girls and our partners.
Designing the digital 2019 Annual Report.
I presented the new branding along with the marketing team in a company wide presentation and also released the new branding by not only launching our new website Girls Who Code website, but also through an annual report that I designed to fully showcase how the brand stretches and flexes.