In my capacity as the global graphic designer for Acumen, I lead branding and design for all our regional offices around the globe, and work on everything from investment collateral to event materials. I have been responsible for setting the visual theme for our social campaigns and events, and maintaining or updating the brand's visual identity as we grow.
Acumen's social media hadn't been reworked since the overall brand refresh in 2013, and while we played around with texture and style every now and then, we knew that our social media needed to be updated to match current social trends. My manager and I share similar design sensibilities, and together we conducted landscape research to find the styles that we liked and suited Acumen's brand identity.
Given Acumen's extensive colour palette, narrowing down on gradients became an easy task. I had already been laying down the groundwork for gradients with some of my older design for Acumen's events, so the conceptualisation process for this rebrand was fairly simple. I created a range of over 40 gradients from our 11 brand colours, both in vibrant and monochromatic styles. The fluidity of gradients lends itself nicely to the sector-agnostic nature of Acumen's work, and paired with bold and sharp typography, stylised photography and minimalistic line work, the brand really comes to life as vibrant, fresh, and ever-evolving. I'm particularly proud of how our Instagram feed looks now!
Social campaign: build what the world needs next --------
For the end of 2020, I led the concept and design for Acumen's End of Yea campaign, Build What The World Needs Next. Drawing on our understanding of how users behave with donations in a year like 2020, we wanted to create a campaign that looked forward and provided a sense of hope for what the future holds, by highlighting some of the incredible work our investees and fellows have been doing to build a world filled with hope and courage that's driven by change.
I helped provide the base theme for the campaign, worked with the team to fine-tune the copy, and managed the visual concept and design for all the campaign assets, which included the landing page, social media ads, graphics, and email outreach.
Social Campaign: Manifesto for a Moral Revolution Book Launch --------
On May 5, 2020, Acumen's Founder Acumen Founder Jacqueline Novogratz launched her new book, Manifesto for a Moral Revolution. Due to COVID-19, the launch was done entirely online, and I led design for all our different branded assets, including social media ads, ambassador toolkit collateral, and digital event banners. The motifs used were inspired by the textures of the book cover, and the colours for the campaign were set to complement the book. For this campaign, I also managed the design of the book landing page on the main website.
Fun fact: Some of the designs I made were shared by the likes of Al Gore, Arianna Huffington, and Meg Ryan!
Event Design
As the Acumen brand shifts with time, so does the event design. I've been managing design for the organization's events since 2019, and have designed collateral and other event assets based on the theme and brand identity. Below is a collection of event collateral from different Acumen events from 2019 to 2021.
As part of the MS in Advertising program at Boston University, I was tasked with creating campaigns for a range of products and services. For some campaigns, I worked on both the copy and design as part of my Portfolio course.
