SUSTAIN

SUSTAIN is a digital initiative from WEDU PBS, focused on the relationships the local community has with the environment. SUSTAIN shares stories concerning changes in our physical surroundings, and explores food, home, lifestyle, and seasonal events.

SUSTAIN has become a wide-reaching collection, spanning on-air video broadcast, multiple digital web series and related video libraries, an extensive blog with tips and a monthly email newsletter, special documentary presentations, a social media campaign, and print and digital advertising for the program overall. I created the different elements of the initiative’s branding and graphics across this spectrum (though I did not create any videos or actual topical content within the initiative).

BRANDING

Logo trials / sketches

I was tasked with creating the branding and collateral for this initiative. The intended audience: eco-conscious and eco-curious people, between high school and retirement age—a wide net for sure, but one of the early goals of SUSTAIN was broad accessibility. The whole idea was to offer tips and build awareness across all types of people in the Tampa area and beyond.

The only request for aesthetic was to include blues and greens, to evoke a mental image of the environment and general sustainability.

Final logos

For the final logo, I combined a water droplet and a leaf, blending them to form a middle-ground shape. I then repeated the shape in reverse, and overlapped them to form a four-pointed diamond in the middle—this diamond is a nod to WEDU PBS’ history, as the station’s logo used to be a four-pointed diamond.

Color palette

I chose six colors for the Sustain color scheme, and found various brand imagery to contribute to the campaign aesthetic.

Style guide for collaborative work

I developed a mini brand guide for the initiative as well, so that other content creators and freelance artists working on the project could create new graphics from approved templates.

Brand graphics: video templates

While establishing the branding, I wanted to find some examples of my envisioned style of video content for the SUSTAIN initiative. I edited detailed templates and exported these three video intros, made available for use by producers and the social media team in promotion of SUSTAIN.

Digital design assets

Being that SUSTAIN began as a digital initiative, of course I had to design some digital assets. While other WEDU employees and freelancers created the video content and graphics for social media, I laid the groundwork for them to further the brand in their respective realms.

Email newsletter graphics

Speaking of digital assets, the monthly SUSTAIN email newsletter has been around for a few years now, so I’ve found brand imagery for a variety of sustainability topics across all the blog articles and emails. I chose photos and illustrations to reflect the different blog topics each issue. Here is a selection of early digital email headers.

Email newsletter refresh

Along with the Communications Specialist, I worked on refreshing the SUSTAIN enewsletter after a few years of publication. This mostly meant designing new graphics on my part, but I am always part of the proofing/approvals process for copy and aesthetic improvements within Mailchimp, too.

Print assets

Newspaper ads

I designed ads for run in WEDU’s print and digital magazine to promote the SUSTAIN initiative and attract readers & viewers to sign up for the email newsletter. Here are four ads (of various sizes, inserted as space allowed) that ran in WEDU PBS’ Premiere Magazine in the last couple years.

Magazine ads

I also designed ads like this one to run in various external publications, like Tampa Bay Magazine and others.

I also did the branding and design work for the new digital series from WEDU PBS’ SUSTAIN initiative, called Bite by Bite: Sustainable Eats.

Event signage

For events relevant to sustainability, including the Green Village at WEDU PBS Be My Neighbor Day, I designed interchangeable signage to serve as placemaking/decor.