Putting My Graphic Design Class to Use

 Last fall I took my first (and so far, only) graphic design course with Professor John Kane. As hard as that class was, it was a complete game changer. I'm by no means a professional- in fact I'm still learning new things about Adobe Creative Cloud programs every day. One of the best parts of my co-op in Belize has been the opportunity to do some more graphic design and continue learning more about design.

One of my goals over the course of this co-op was to create more transparency and clarity about the connections between our volunteer recruitment company and our community development projects. To do this, I've slightly edited some logos, and entirely redesigned others, in an effort to create a cohesive look.

Previous NM Productions Logo

Improved NM Productions Logo

NM Productions Belize is our study abroad/ service-learning program/ volunteer recruitment company. We use NM Productions to recruit university groups to come experience Belize and participate in some of our community development projects. This was the first project I worked on (in terms of design). The old logo had been created by another designer, and no one really disliked it, but the Navy blue and dark pink didn't really represent the vibrancy of Belize. We decided to keep the design, but I changed around the colors.

Previous Nancy Marin Youth Foundation Logo

Improved Nancy Marin Youth Foundation Logo

The Nancy Marin Youth Foundation is the overarching non-profit organization that I work for on co-op. This organization has started community development projects in the San Ignacio community- including Barzakh Falah & Camp Elevate. Again, there wasn't really anything wrong with the original logo, but I wanted to alter it slightly to better fit with the color scheme of the rest of our projects. I also wanted to pick a slightly more playful font- since this is a project for the kids.

Another old logo for the Nancy Marin Youth Foundation

Brand new Camp Elevate Logo

Camp Elevate is one of the community development projects created by the Nancy Marin Youth Foundation. This camp happens annually, depending on the availability of sponsors. The camp invites at-risk youth to experience educational & adventure activities, at no cost, for one week during their summer break. This old logo for the Nancy Marin Youth Foundation was actually borrowed from another youth foundation- so that had to be changed immediately. However, we really liked the idea of having humans help each other rising up, so I designed this logo from scratch. Again, using the same colors as the new NM Youth Foundation logo.

really really really really old Barzakh Falah logo

Barzakh Falah New Logo

This was definitely the biggest redesign project. I had nothing to go off of, since the old "logo" was not even a logo... and definitely more confusing than anything else. Basically all I knew was that I still wanted to keep the colors going of the other logo projects. I chose the silhouette of the rain tree because these are the trees that have been planted that will provide shade over the courtyards of the living areas at Barzkah Falah. The young girl underneath the tree symbolizes both the children and young women that will be sheltered at Barzakh Falah. The whole idea also ties into the national motto of Belize- "Sub Umbra Floreo" or "Under the shade, I flourish". I still have some really mixed feelings about the yellow color, but everyone else on the staff team loves it, so it's there to stay (at least for now).


All together, I'm pretty happy with how the re-branding turned out. Hopefully it will help our organizations become more recognizably interrelated.

2017 Rebranding