During my nearly 14-year tenure as the sole designer at the Oklahoma City Community Foundation, I performed almost any design task imaginable - designing publications, postcards, handouts, presentations, business cards, signage, trade show displays, advertisements, social media graphics, logos, and some light video work - as part of an in-house agency. One of the greatest challenges was creating interresting designs using the limited color palette of the original brand design - PMS 8222C and Black 5U. Over time, I was able to expand the brand with a couple of secondary colors to allow more flexibility. I also redesigned, built, and maintained the organization's web sites multiple times, modernizing and increasing the functionality with each iteration.
The annual report is the most important publication at the community foundation. The communications team usually had a theme and my designs were built around it. We slightly varied that approach for the 50th anniversary, presenting a look back at the history and a look forward to the future. The first page of the report was a five-panel foldout with upcoming events on one side and a 50-year historical timeline on the other. I kept the interior very subtle but the cover design was bold using a metallic ink and embossing to place emphasis on the connection point motif. Download the 50th Anniversary Annual Report.
An illustrated sign for the Oklahoma City Community Foundation River Trail intended to inform visitors of the wild grasses being grown on the trail and the environmental benefits of these grasses. I created this in Illustrator using photo reference of grasses and flowers native to the region. The sign was printed on metal.
As a rule, the community foundation does not advertise. There are exceptions. As part of support for the Oklahoma City University Bass School of Music, we provided a half page ad in their program.
Another major publication was the scholarship yearbook. The magazine celebrated thew scholarship recipients that year from the community foundation scholarship program, one of the largest in the nation. There were usually 160-200 recipients each year. The publication also honored donors who supported scholarships and served as a first introduction of the community foundation to the students. In 2018, the communications team decided on a super hero theme and, to date, it is the only design on which I've not received revision requests.
