BRAND
Project
Summary
Made With
Leading creative for idsi performance systems division
I currently lead IDSI's production capabilities, including several cross-functional teams through design and development of digital products and experiences. Starting with only one project in 2013, I worked to expand the capabilities of the company by improving the brand identity, improving social and web presence, recruiting talent and onboarding, and directing product and experience design through lifecycle management.
James Spino
Eric Monachello
Cassandra Trissler
Rachael Spayde
Henry Meredith
Daniel Wilson
Duncan Iaria
Zach Helm
Chris Hassebrook
Duncan Yewell
Nick Paparazzo
Lacey MacDuffie
Taylor Walden
Background
Starting from scratch
I joined IDSI as Creative Director in 2013 to rebuild the production capabilities of their Performance Systems division after they had to layoff most of the division in 2012. Initially, I started with a team of 3 working on a project for the Veterans Administration. I led the company through Design Transformation, to rebrand the company, design and build a new web presence, expand our capabilities into social media marketing, games for learning, human-centered design, software development, and virtual/augmented reality. Our success has grown the team to 25+ in multiple disciplines of design, product development, learning management and data science.
Site design, graphics and branding for IDSI when I started in 2013
branding
Rebuilding & Rebranding
Immediately after joining IDSI in 2013, I focused on a rebrand to set ourselves apart in the defense industry and attract talent. I met with the company President and CEO to design a new brand identity and logo, working through several iterations of design. Ultimately, we decided on a flat, clean version of the logo that quickly conveyed new direction. I focused on consolidating all the versions of the past logo and wordmark into this new brand and created a bold new color palette and font, moving away from myriad pro and the yellow, black and tan.
Growth through good design
Through 2014 I continued to redefine brand elements and marketing as we started work on additional projects, expanding my team to 6 team members. I worked to improve our identity on social media and began to rebuild our web presence. As we grew I focused on recruiting extremely talented designers and developers to help build out the teams capabilities.
I worked up a new design for the website and worked with my developers to prototype it and pitch it to IDSI leadership. I wanted to stand IDSI apart within the industry and showcase our small, creative capabilities. I worked through several designs before approval.
Direction
EVOLVING through Growing pains
With a redesigned brand and identity, larger social media presence, and new website, we grew from 3 projects in 2014 to 8 projects by 2017. Throughout that time, my team went from a couple employees to almost 20. I worked to build cross-functional leadership and define processes and structure so teams could integrate with each other.
As we grew our human resources identified a gap in our onboarding process, which I recognized as an opportunity for an internal project. Taking a couple designers and developers we designed an interactive onboarding experience for new employees.
Development
Transformation through design
Throughout the onboarding project I wanted to empower designers to dive into their designs and push their creativity. Throughout the project I worked with designers to experiment with navigation, iconology, typography and animation. Working with copywriters and instructional designers to create wireframes for each page, this project gave us the opportunity to explore new brand identity and cross-functional concepts for IDSI.
Always Refining the brand
I continue to work with IDSI leadership to develop the creative vision for the brand. In 2019, my team took over the social media accounts for the company and manage daily content generation and interactions. Focusing on targeted advertisements and relevant content, our engagement and retention are up over 1000% from previously. One of the major initiatives was creating a show reel. I directed creative input for one of my talented motion designers, James Spino, to create a powerful statement video for IDSI's brand.