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GRAPHIC DESIGN PORTFOLIO | LOGOS & BRANDING & WEBSITES

JULY 2016

their story is our story: giving voice to refugees

My cousin Trisha lives in Frankfurt, Germany and has found herself on the front lines of the refugee crisis since they began streaming into Europe in 2015 to escape the horror of their homelands being destroyed by terrorism and war. She got to know these people personally and wanted to share their individual stories with the world in order to personalize and further explain what was happening and why millions are fleeing, and to share their heartbreaking yet unbelievably inspirational and courageous stories. And so the marvelous Their Story Is Our Story team was born and got to work.

At first (dun dun DUN), I was delighted to be asked by Trisha to help out with TSOS logo development, branding implementation and social media publicity . . .

The folder of misfit toys logos

logo development

Okay, honesty time here. I don't like this logo. And MAN, this was kind of a miserable one to create, too. At first they gave me a weird little image that I was supposed to design around, and I tried and failed and they all hated it. As did I. And I don't know WHAT I was thinking with some of those color combos I did. I can't blame them for not liking those ugly little missteps!

We finally nixed that stupid icon image and that improved things, BUT it was still a fledgling group at that time trying to figure out who was in charge and had way too many cooks in the kitchen and impossible to please everyone, but everyone WANTED to be pleased. UGH!

And I REALLY don't like the gray and wish we'd used a coolish-toned brown instead. I find the gray harsh and the brown just SEEMED more Middle Eastern-appropriate, like desert sands maybe? So many of the gorgeous photos they had featured dusty, sandy back drops.

I also don't really care for those two fonts together (mostly my fault on that one).

Winner winner, but I didn't get a chicken dinner...

branding

I think the TSOS team has done and continues to do a great job in branding - using their logo consistently on a wide variety of marketing materials and in presentations and social media postings.

TSOS website

TSOS presentation in Maryland

TSOS posting on Instagram

Front of TSOS business card

Back of TSOS business card

TSOS art display in Seattle

website

Oy. Well, the website was created independently of the logo. Huge mistake, in my opinion. While the website operation and layout is absolutely fine - clean, organized and easy to navigate - the yellowey-browney-beige background doesn't work with the logo colors and the huge use of the Times-like font as a header font does NOT go with the logo at all. I did not develop and create the current TSOS website, though I was the one that populated it initially and I probably spent at least 200 hours perfecting it. I was obsessively careful to keep all stories, blog entries, photo watermarks, etc., identical in terms of format and information provided, but whoever took over for me isn't quite as detail-oriented (yes, I finally left TSOS about eight months after I joined due to frustration with communication and management style, but I still 100% support their mission and am excited to see how successful they've been - they even published an incredible book!)

While certainly not as sophisticated as the original, the first Squarespace "place-holder" website colors & fonts worked much better with the logo. I put together this first website. And populated it with hundreds of TSOS' beautiful photos and artwork. I also spent dozens upon dozens upon dozens of hours perfecting this website, too, because I cared so much about the TSOS cause. And because I didn't want to let my aunt and cousin down (both on the TSOS Board of Directors).

Yeah, this project kinda hurt that I couldn't make it work with TSOS' team, because there's never been another project that I cared so much about.

Do you see what I mean? 'Twould be wonderful if it just had a white background, all color photos, and a complementary header font to the logo! THAT'S ALL. BUT NO ONE LISTENED TO ME. Yep, still a bit bitter...

Imagine this website filled with incredible, beautiful, moving photos (all broken links now). I wish I'd kept screenshots of it in its glory before it was cruelly shunted aside! (a bit dramatic, I know)

this page last updated May 9, 2019

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