March 18, 2004 | Read Time: 2 minutes
Two years ago, when Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Iowa, in Des Moines, moved to a new building, Sheree Clark, a board member of the charity and co-owner of Sayles Graphic Design, suggested that it might be a good time for the organization to get an image makeover. The charity would have to spend money reprinting its materials with its new address, Ms. Clark reasoned, so why not go a step further?
Althea Holcomb, the organization’s executive director, says she jumped at the idea, in part because she didn’t think the charity’s promotional brochures were terribly effective. Most of the print materials had photographs of adults with the young people they volunteer to mentor. Such pictures became outdated quickly as youngsters grew up, says Ms. Holcomb. But more damaging, she says, “when you look at a brochure with two people on the front of it, you either identify with them or you don’t. And if you don’t, you slam the brochure shut and say ‘not for me.’”
The charity decided to use plants, animals, and insects as the key design elements, depicting small and large species to show the organization’s effort to link adults and young people.
“We wanted to go to something that we believed every population could identify with,” she says. The redesign resulted not only in new print materials, but also in several colorful metal sculptures for the organization’s new building, the largest of which was about 8 feet tall and 6 feet wide. The sculptures were featured in Print magazine’s latest Regional Design Annual, which recognizes the best design in advertising, promotional materials, illustration, and other categories nationwide.
The new image has helped the organization get the word out more effectively, Ms. Holcomb says. The number of matches between adults and children has increased 65 percent since the group relocated and the redesign was introduced.
Other groups featured in the regional design issue have had similar successes, often with the help of volunteers who had professional advertising experience.
The Human Rights Campaign’s North Carolina steering committee enlisted one of its board members, Clay Andrews, a principal at an advertising company in Charlotte, N.C., to design an invitation to its annual fund-raising dinner. The group told Mr. Andrews it wanted to send the message that the event would be entertaining, but also inspiring, so he designed an invitation showing a variety of couples — both heterosexual and same-sex — in photographs reminiscent of a 1970s high-school prom, embarrassing fashion and all. A record number of people attended the event, which raised $100,000, more than the event had ever produced.
