As the creative manager and graphic designer for the Committee for Children (CFC), my main task was to establish a clear vision for the company's brand. This involved identifying who we are as a company and what our voice is, as well as listening to our customers, prospects, and employees to understand their motives when making decisions about our brand. I also analyzed our competition to figure out what we stand for as a company.

To show our audience who we are without telling them, I focused on developing single-sheet quick guides for both CFC and our product, Second Step (SS), working directly with the Director of Creative. These guides served as an “at-a-glance” guide for our marketing, policy & advocacy, and public relations teams. I also determined nomenclature for each logo to avoid confusion in the future, as well as established color ratios to emphasize which brand colors we should lead with and which should be secondary.

Using the online tool Frontify, I developed a detailed brand standard for both brands for our creative teams. This tool allowed me to provide in-depth instructions on how to use our logos, fonts, colors, print, and digital collaterals. The focus was on consistency to strengthen our branding, as it became more important for us to maintain uniformity within the brand as our company continued to grow, both in revenue and in employees. I also worked directly with our legal team to ensure all logo marks adhered to our trademark and copyright rules.

Once the initial brand standards were established, I delegated the maintenance to my Art Director, who focused on establishing the templates of our print collateral to further unify our brands. We also established a specific look and name for each of our print pieces, making it easier for our marketing team when different types of collateral were displayed at a trade show booth.

To establish a strong brand foundation, consistency is key. However, it's also important to know when it's okay to break the rules, especially on special occasions, such as campaigns or when the company is showing support for a cause. My goal was to make my team masters in branding, who not only know all of the rules but also know when it's okay to break them.

In summary, my role in creating the branding for the Committee for Children (CFC) involved identifying who we are as a company and establishing our voice through listening to our customers, prospects, and employees. I developed clear brand standards and delegated their maintenance to ensure consistency. Ultimately, the upfront foundation we established allowed for the brand to grow and develop over time in a way that was new but still true to the original.