I began working with Brain Arts as a volunteer halfway through 2018. I started out just helping out at events and taking photos but I volunteered with the hope that I could design for the organization. I wanted to make posters and work with illustrators to really refine the organizations visuals. After some time helping out with small design tasks, I was brought on as a Design Coordinator for the Organization and worked directly under the creative director, Emma Leavitt
One of the earlier projects I was tasked with was to design a quick info-graphic, something I had never done. The initial idea was to use graphs and charts but that fell through since the info/stats I was given were mainly statements. There was no comparisons being made so it wouldn’t have made sense. I came up with a quick postcard size “impact report”.
The creative director liked it enough to ask me to design a template for their sponsorship package, which they hadn’t really done before. The goal was to have a design that could be applied to whatever event they needed sponsors for. The first one was for their DAP Open Mic and the second one was for their Black Market Flea. I tried applying the concepts from the Impact report to the sponsor package.
After the positive reactions and feedback from the team. I was asked to come up with a Branding Guide in order to make this visual identity more official and help other designers volunteering with the organization stay aligned with the brand. Since Brain Arts is run on the work of volunteers, there can be a lot of aesthetics. The goal was not to be dogmatic and limit anyone, but to embrace all the different visual styles. The result was to have a set of anchors for the Brain Arts Brand which needed a recognizable identity and a set of suggestions that allowed for more freedom of expression and kept the DIY feel of the brand. I used Collage and Photomontage as the visual identity for Brain Arts because its an aesthetic that represents the feeling of being part of the BAO community. When one volunteers, attends an event, or visits Dorchester Art project there are always different things happening with interesting and unique people. So, incorporating the Organization’s vast photo library seemed like a must. I also think that this Visual Identity was simple enough that other designers could apply it themselves when volunteering for Brain Arts.
This led to applying the concepts to other smaller projects such as stickers, business cards, event badges, and t-shirts. For these projects I couldn’t apply the Collage visuals because they were significantly smaller in size and had strict printing requirements.
During this time I was also designing posters and flyers for the various events that the organization had planned. I was allowed a lot of creative freedom so this is where I really tried to flex my design muscles and experiment.
And after a year of brand development and understanding the aesthetic better than ever. I was able to do the impact report for 2019. It was to be printed out as a postcard like the year before with the second side having a simple explanation of the organizations efforts
The Covid 19 pandemic has slowed my involvement with Brain Arts but I trust when life starts to go back to normal there will always be a community of artist and organizers to be a part of. Stay tuned for more.