Marketing design and strategy for a BCorp that creates bespoke geospatial software for good.

Azavea is a B-Corp that builds cutting-edge software for a broad range of clients, including non-profits, government agencies, cities, museums, and more. When I started as a User Experience Designer at Azavea in 2017, only a quarter of my time was devoted to expanding Azavea’s brand identity in both the virtual and physical world.

Ultimately, I planned to solve several issues with the new digital guide:

• Collate company information. The company’s mission statement, history, voice and tone, and other information were buried in various wikis and documents, most in various states of disuse. I gathered all the information and organized it in the new guide.
• Introduce internal clarity for Azavea’s libraries and products. Azavea is unique in that the company maintains several open source libraries and SaaS products. Similarly to the main brand, there was no one place in which someone could access high-level, differentiating information or logo downloads for each of these identities. This was particularly problematic for new employees, who often voiced confusion.
• Make it easier to access up-to-date assets. Azavea’s color and knockout logos were all in different locations. Many designers over the years had created the company’s sub-brands. Relevant logo files and formats were inconsistently created or non-existent.
• Establish color and typography guidelines. Other than the colors in the logo, there was no established color palette for the company. There were also many different typefaces in use across Azavea’s print collateral and websites.

Throughout the process of building this digital toolkit, it quickly became clear that there was considerable inconsistency in how branded content was handled. For example, there were many typefaces in use across Azavea’s web and print materials. In order to create an identifiable visual language for Azavea, I made sure to establish additional design rules.

Pattern

Since Azavea’s work is typically geospatial in nature, I introduced topographic patterns to our brand-kit. These add visual punch and texture to our web and print materials, while hinting to the nature of our work.

I presented this option to our CEO, Design Team Lead, and Business Development professionals and began the process of replacing other typefaces in our marketing materials.

I have led the redesign of several key microsites for Azavea. One of my primary focuses has been on ensuring that Azavea websites feel as though they are a part of the same family. To this end, I have since applied a new set of visual principles and patterns to several branded microsites.

For example, I redesigned a website called “Redistricting the Nation”. The website consistently got good traffic in search engines, but looked dated and had several broken interactive features. The CEO wanted to retain the website as a microsite so that we could continue to get traffic through this avenue.

I addressed several key issues with the previous site, but most notably re-branded the it to more clearly align it with Azavea’s brand. Setting the primary domain name to be a subdomain of Azavea’s website: redistricting.azavea.com, I also designed the microsite to more clearly reference Azavea’s brand in color, typography, and style. This included replaced the previous custom logo (Redistricting the Nation) with a sub-brand called: Azavea Redistricting.

I’ve also since been the primary designer for Azavea’s print and apparel. This has meant representing our brand in fresh, inventive ways for internal and external recognition:

• Employee gifts. I’ve had the chance to apply Azavea’s brand to custom apparel for both adult Azaveans and their children.
• Internal awards and incentives. This has included a broad range of projects, including end-of-year award plaques and custom challenge coins for my colleagues. The coins are handed out monthly, and awarded to people who participate in talks (creatively named the “Talk Award” coins) or write engaging blogs (also simply called the ”Blog Award” coins).
• Print collateral, such as business development proposal templates. The latter are used by my colleagues to send to clients, and required some instruction content. They were also painstakingly (painstakingly) created in Microsoft Word.

All told, this work has been a massive effort completed over four years. Some of the early Branding Guide work has been hugely valuable in communicating changes and sharing assets with my colleagues, and is also regularly used for onboarding and sharing outside of the company for PR and partnerships. This is an ongoing effort, but rewarding in that designers and employees at Azavea now have access to a clearer set of branding assets, guidelines, and patterns.