Friends of Hackett
Philadelphia is continuously expanding, and people are striving to establish and grow their communities, much like the mission of Friends of Hackett, a non-profit community organization created to support the Horatio B. Hackett Elementary School. The group arranges family-friendly events and fundraisers to raise money for the school. We were fortunate enough to get the opportunity to rebrand this Friends of organization and brand their annual block party fundraiser. Our main objectives were to create a branding strategy that corresponds to their mission as well as supply the organization with sustainable and organized design principles for their entire brand and event.
Instructor: Abby Guido
Team: Charlotte Friedman, Anthony Sanchas-Rojas, Sean Delmore, Sophia Mazza
Institution: Tyler School of Art - Temple University
c. 2022
WEB DESIGN
LOGO AND BRAND DEVELOPMENT
SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY
COLLABORATION
During the project, we distributed work evenly to tackle the tasks. My work was focused primarily on developing the website for most of the project. In addition to the website, I was the client manager and was responsible for getting the information and content to the client and presenting our information to the client in presentation formatting. I also worked on logo development in the early stages of the project.
Logo Development
As a team, we took a great deal of time sketching out many ideas, emotions, and styles that could evoke the feeling of Hackett. We all naturally were drawn to the school’s mascot: a panda. We knew one must be included in our logo.
The logo concept I worked on centers around the idea of the panda and neighboring communities around the school. The heart in the center, which also doubles as the panda’s belly, symbolizes the friendship and love of the Friends of Hackett. The vintage street signs of Fishtown influence the style of this logo.
Website Development
After analyzing research and discussing with the client, we were able to land on structure for the new website. The tabs we landed on are a Home page, About Us page, Get Involved page, Shop page, and Support Us page.
The content on each page was important to organize properly for easy understanding by the viewer. On the home page, the content is limited to a large photo of the logo and the mission statement and Instagram feed at the bottom. This simplicity on the homepage was important to the organization to not distract from the main goals and current events.
The About Us page contains more information and content than the other pages. There is a significant focus on getting to know the organization at the root. The Get Involved page is used to collect people’s information in a form if they are interested in involving themselves in the organization.
On the Shop page are pieces of Friends of Hackett merchandise on sale and ready to purchase. The contact page has a simple form available to contact the organization with any general questions. Lastly, the Support Us page is accessed by a button in the top menu bar, and creates a space for people to donate to the organization with a monetary donation or using the Amazon Smile program.
A primary goal we wanted to accomplish with the website was sustainability, with little to no edits needed. With this in mind, we used an Instagram social media widget on the home page to allow for synched updates of events and current news without having to make changes to the website. The brand identity was kept consistent throughout the website with colored blocks, type, and imagery. We used the created icons across the pages in themed blocks to bring a sense of familiarity to the website from the brand.
Garden Party
As a part of our rebranding of Friends of Hackett we organized an event at the Hackett Elementary School playground. This event’s purpose was to show the community Friends of Hackett’s new and improved logo and provide fun and engaging activities for the children. While this event was going on, volunteers and parents were also invited to lend a hand in the garden.
The garden party event was a great experience for our group and a joy to give back to the community. We produced pins with our new logo on it to give out to everyone, in addition to planned activities that included chalk drawing, panda sketching, panda mask-making, and face painting, which I was in charge of. Everyone had a fantastic time enjoying the crafts and helping out in the garden, including a state representative, Mary Isaacson.
Block Party
After concluding with the branding, web presence, icons, and garden party, the priority was the branding of the block party held by the organization every year. The block party is their biggest fundraiser of the year, and it is essential the branding matches the event and the previous existing branding.
