To create a world where all young people thrive, we knew we must first connect with youth-serving professionals on deep, emotional levels. To this end, I led a new Johns Hopkins and Healthy Teen Network collab through exercises to brand its research-to-practice efforts.
Together, we created and named Thrivology, an optimistic, affirming, grounded, assertive, and exciting brand. Collectively, these values come alive with a logo and marks that hint at our brand story; plain, down-to-earth language; and bold, nature-inspired collages.
Creating a values-forward brand requires a structured, time-intensive process with multiple touchpoints for feedback and iteration with end users and key stakeholders. We created four separate brand prototypes with unique brand names and visual identities; Thrivology is a product of all these prototypes, built from the best building blocks of each of them.
Inspired by the collaboration of two organizations that founded Thrivology, I designed our marks to feature converging forms. The logo's syllable dots pay homage to defining a new "-ology," or a field of study, while symbolizing the dismantling of academic knowelege. Our color scheme commemorates the year of our founding with Viva Red, a shade reminiscent of Pantone's 2023 Color of the Year. When layered with Ink, these colors form the new color, Overprint, visually representing the dynamic partnership at the core of Thrivology. Together, we are greater than the sum of our parts.
Risograph is a vibrant spot-color printing technique that gained popularity in the 1980s. Thrivology embraces this technique to craft memorable, collage-like images that I used for both print and web. By overlaying photographs and lively botanicals, our visuals nod toward our brand values and highlight a state of thriving.
I designed a website to bring Thrivology’s vision to life online and created a Brand Guidelines book to capture the creative decisions we made and ensure forthcoming resources convey our values, are consistent and compelling, and ultimately shape a world where all young people thrive.
