We designed a brand identity that showcased Ann Cooper Consulting's ability to elevate communities.
Ann Cooper Consulting is a grant writing consultancy whose mission is to connect nonprofits to the resources they need. The consultancy provides grant writing workshops as well as one on one grant writing coaching to over 450 nonprofit leaders to train them in the process of applying for and writing grants. Ann Cooper approached me with the goal of creating a personal brand that would effectively connect with nonprofit leaders and align with her business goals.
Summary
A brand's personality is often an extension of the people behind the brand; with a single-person consultancy like Ann Cooper Consulting, that brand personality is cranked up to 100. We wanted to capture that personality and expertise in the brand identity while still creating a brand that would connect to the ideal user.
We started the process like all brand identity projects: a facilitated discovery workshop where we defined 3-5 key users, established brand goals and determined brand attributes. These are used to create the stylescapes: curated mood boards designed to create a unique look and feel filtered through a specific user.
I presented various stylescapes that demonstrated the brand attributes in different forms. Ultimately Ann decided upon a clean-looking, monotone stylescape that emphasized forward-thinking, change-making and relevance.
With the stylescape agreed upon, I moved on to the logo design. The challenge was applying the brand attributes of forward-thinking, change-making, and relevance and synthesizing that into an abstract form. What shape does forward-thinking? What does relevance look like? I had my work cut out for me.
When designing logos, I prefer to start with a sketchbook, and I find sketching easier for rapid idea generation. I chose to customize the A in Ann Cooper through sketching and research. The final design combined the letter A and an upward-turned arrow. The arrow represents the forward-thinking and elevation that Ann Cooper Consulting provides.
With this came the new tagline: Elevation Nonprofits, Elevation Communities.
With the logo design finalized, it didn't take long to develop an entire identity system from that core mark and apply it to all touch-points.
I wanted a fresh clean design and I got it. Also he has been responsive to calls for assistance. I now have a website I can manage, but know that if there is a technical issue or question, Zach stands ready to help wherever he can. In today's workplace, dependable customer service means everything. I look forward to future work projects with Zach Ebert Design. -Ann Cooper
