Design Allies
Format
Senior Art and Design Exhibition
Faculty Mentor Name
Marie Lee
Faculty Mentor Department
Art and Graphic Design
Abstract/Artist Statement
Design Allies is intended to support United States military personnel and their families by improving the success of their businesses through visual marketing. It includes a website, infographics, posters, cards, and promotional items to exemplify its potential function, brand, and marketing strategy.
Circumstances such as deployment, relocation, and care-giving complicate employment for military families, affecting their quality of life. As a result, many spouses of servicemen have started businesses to supplement their income. Though this is financially beneficial, the struggle of balancing home duties while running an enterprise still exists. Branding, essential to any business model, can be especially difficult for those without training in marketing and design. This presents an opportunity for corporations and design students to relieve pressure by forming “alliances”, which will provide funding, create branding, and develop visual marketing on their behalf.
The strategy for Design Allies is to use visual marketing to encourage corporations, students, and military family businesses to join the organization. Corporations will be asked to fund paid internships, allowing collegiate designers to work for military spouse entrepreneurs at no cost to them. These three audiences will be reached by sending personalized letters to potential sponsors, installing posters in universities, and hosting tabling events with website demonstrations and postcard distributions. Upon joining Design Allies, members receive a gift: Design Allies dog-tags, a t-shirts or a ball cap.
My hope is that this project will promote greater prosperity for military families, provide invaluable internships for students, and establish credibility and respect for sponsoring organizations.
Location
Reynolds Gallery
Start Date
18-4-2018 6:00 PM
End Date
11-5-2018 5:00 PM
Design Allies
Reynolds Gallery
Design Allies is intended to support United States military personnel and their families by improving the success of their businesses through visual marketing. It includes a website, infographics, posters, cards, and promotional items to exemplify its potential function, brand, and marketing strategy.
Circumstances such as deployment, relocation, and care-giving complicate employment for military families, affecting their quality of life. As a result, many spouses of servicemen have started businesses to supplement their income. Though this is financially beneficial, the struggle of balancing home duties while running an enterprise still exists. Branding, essential to any business model, can be especially difficult for those without training in marketing and design. This presents an opportunity for corporations and design students to relieve pressure by forming “alliances”, which will provide funding, create branding, and develop visual marketing on their behalf.
The strategy for Design Allies is to use visual marketing to encourage corporations, students, and military family businesses to join the organization. Corporations will be asked to fund paid internships, allowing collegiate designers to work for military spouse entrepreneurs at no cost to them. These three audiences will be reached by sending personalized letters to potential sponsors, installing posters in universities, and hosting tabling events with website demonstrations and postcard distributions. Upon joining Design Allies, members receive a gift: Design Allies dog-tags, a t-shirts or a ball cap.
My hope is that this project will promote greater prosperity for military families, provide invaluable internships for students, and establish credibility and respect for sponsoring organizations.