SullivanTraining Network
Expanding the brand with a visual narrative
SECTOR
Nonprofit
Community Support
Career Development
SERVICES PROVIDED
Brand Design
Iconography
Collateral Design
Website Design
Photography Art Direction
OIC of America (OICA) is a nonprofit adult education and training organization with a rich history in what it calls the “hearts of forgotten places.” In 1964, Reverend Leon Sullivan opened the first OICA program for disadvantaged and under-skilled adults in Philadelphia, where he provided the job training, life skills, and job placement that would propel many Americans to overcome poverty and oppression. Today, OICA continues to create new pathways out of poverty, into new careers, and toward stronger communities with a network of 25 affiliates across the country. Its free training programs, Sullivan Training Network (STN) and STEMLinx—a division of STN—are the organization’s latest efforts to support this ongoing mission.
The Client
STN continues the legacy of Rev. Leon Sullivan by tapping its network of affiliates in forgotten places to prepare poor and justice-involved people for living wage careers tailored to their local economies. Offering both virtual and in-person programs, STN plans to train 25,000 people a year by 2030, ultimately connecting employers to a large and reliable workforce that helps their own businesses thrive and builds a more economically just nation. STEMLinx, a sub-brand of STN, is a youth-centered training and outreach program focused on careers in science, technology, engineering, and math.
We were hired by agency client, Neverstill, to deliver the very first branding for STN as well as its sub-brand, STEMLinx. Since STN was a nascent program, our design work would grow and adapt as the organization began staffing for this new division. Ultimately, the final branding and design would need to visually communicate the stories of real people and how they have interacted with the programs.
The Challenge
STN needed to develop a new brand while simultaneously launching the actual training program. They had to continue work as usual, bring on new staff, and hire a team to help them manage the communications side of the whole transition and launch. Our challenge was to work with people who had limited schedules, new staff who were just learning the ropes, and the random unexpected needs that arose amongst the known scope of work.
The Solution
Since STN was so new with many fresh faces in charge of its launch and ongoing operations, we helped their team craft a visual narrative that would reflect their mission. We began with a brand visioning workshop, which engaged key members of OICA to discuss the purpose, objectives, and core values of STN, in order to help us establish a foundation for future branding and visual identity efforts. It was a unique experience to build the brand together in real time with the client.
We explored how we could represent pathways and networks, some of OICA’s key messages that would carry through to STN, and how we could link the organization with all of its audiences. In our final design, this came across as lines of color symbolizing the connections of people to new careers and communities. We arrived at a bright, bold, and youthful color palette that evoked a unique brand personality: confident, positive, innovative, and legacy. To bring in the human element, we layered modern images of different faces and jobs with the other visual elements to reflect the types of people they could connect to new careers, help out of poverty, and move towards stronger communities.
Over the course of about 11 months, we collaborated with multiple teams and committees on the client side to develop a new logo, microsite, brand guidelines, photography art direction, and icons. To support the new and existing staff as they expanded their services, we also created a robust suite of user-friendly collateral, including reports, flyers, infographics, slide decks, and templates for stationery, email, and social media.
Zooming out, this was an ever-evolving project that required our team to expand on the scope, then expand on it again, all while working with a large organization that included lots of wonderful teams, committees, and stakeholders.
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