Affirmative Research
Brand Identity &
Web Design
YEAR 2020
Non-Profit Client WorkCLIENT
Affirmative Research is an International Research Organization that bridges the research-practice divide associated with the wellbeing of LGBTQ+ youth and young adults. The conduct clinical trials and group studies with LGBTQ+ youth and young adults to better understand their experience. Then they develop training materials for social workers, health and mental heath practitioners and educators. Affirmative Research’s trainings are research based on affirmative care of LGBTQ+ youth and young adults.
CHALLENGE
Affirmative Research needed a brand identity to appear reputable when offering training to professionals and providing professional development credit. The challenge of this project was to develop a professional, fun, and inviting brand identity that could be used to brand future conferences, webinar training, and clinical trails.
RESEARCH
The research process began by developing a full understanding of what Affirmative Research does, their mission, and goals for this project. After exploring their current website, reading several research papers by Dr. Shelley Criag and Dr. Ashley Austin, an understanding of their research was gained. Next it was important to understand Affirmative Research’s direct and indirect competition. Not only did notes include logos and color schemes, but the types of photos used and voice and tone. It was important to set them apart visually from organizations with a similar mission but also to ensure the media was appropriate for the audience of professional academics.
After completing the research, three mood boards were created. This step was taken to enable visual communication with the client and to determine the direction they wished to take for the project, without wasting any time. The first mood board adopted a "clinical, professional" approach, displaying young adults in therapy or clinical trials, with cool tones dominating the color scheme. The second mood board had a youthful design, featuring cheerful young adults in bright, colorful images, with a color scheme that included blue-green and red-orange. The final mood board, which the client ultimately chose, was based on a traditional rainbow representation of the LGBTQ+ community. Although the rainbow was slimmed down into some core colors, the images used high contrast to portray LGBTQ+ youth and young adults in a manner that allowed them to be themselves.
LOGO DESIGN PROCESS
The logo design process began with sketching out a few dozen ideas for the logo. The client expressed interested in a typographic symbol. After exploring many combinations of AR, the approve concept was developed and proposed in the mood board.Once the concept was approved, a digital execution was developed. Several versions were created, exploring a variety of web safe typefaces and gradient patterns.The final design combined two versions, using all caps and increased tracking on research in the poppins typeface.
Thumbnail
Digital Rough
Final
BRAND GUIDELINES
A brand guide was created that presents multiple versions of the logo, including two lock ups, full color and grayscale, and a version for dark backgrounds and light backgrounds. There is also details on clearspace guidelines, guidelines for using the symbol alone, and typography and color guidelines.
Affirmative Research required several deliverables related to training material for conferences and workshops.
Using Squarespace, a 15 page website was developed with ecommerce and blogging features.
