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Process

While I don’t have a linear process that fits every project, there are important common elements to this kind of collaborative work. These are the principles, both intuitive and pragmatic, that guide me. This is where creativity meets your branding and communications needs.

Identifying a Connection

I like to understand the totality of a situation or a challenge as well as a client’s business generally, including their big-picture goals. This becomes the framework within which inspiration can flourish. I discover and connect to something meaningful and distinctive that then suffuses everything I do.

Thinking Critically

No one wants “pretty” for its own sake. As we work together, I’ll be asking questions, sometimes aloud and sometimes of myself. The idea is to be intentional every step of the way. Does the design go beyond the aesthetic, reconnecting back to the project challenge and the overarching goals?

Diving Deeper

This means looking under the hood of an organization. Finer details then reveal themselves, and often these can form the basis for the unique identifiers—an idea, an image—of a brand or message. In turn these identifiers become creative anchors for the work that follows.

Staying Adaptive

New understandings and possibilities emerge throughout a project. These might call for different media and approaches to reach and move audiences. Such adaptivity works hand in hand with the other elements here: with deep understanding and a commitment to meaningful impact, we have our North Star… and anything becomes possible.

Case Study 1: Oommen Consulting

The challenge: branding identity

Oommen Consulting, which specializes in nonprofit fundraising, needed a fresh branding scheme, complete with a tagline and business materials. I learned its values and mission so that we could immediately capture the essence of what the business stood for, including equality, justice, and a reputation for impeccably thorough work. Out of the brainstorming process, a single image stood out: a Möbius strip, a symbol of uninterrupted wholeness.

Logo Design

The one sided nature of the strip represents the firm's ability to connect with donors, communities, and nonprofits that appear to be coming from different worlds but are actually rallying around the same causes.
By doubling and interlinking the image, we could actually convey the first two letters of “Oommen” while also adding visual distinctiveness—a key ingredient of branding.
Standing the image upright provided a new connection: the double-O link also formed the “S” in “Sunil”—the business owner’s first name—that became subtly apparent.
The one sided nature of the strip represents the firm's ability to connect with donors, communities, and nonprofits that appear to be coming from different worlds but are actually rallying around the same causes.
By doubling and interlinking the image, we could actually convey the first two letters of “Oommen” while also adding visual distinctiveness—a key ingredient of branding.
Standing the image upright provided a new connection: the double-O link also formed the “S” in “Sunil”—the business owner’s first name—that became subtly apparent.
The one sided nature of the strip represents the firm's ability to connect with donors, communities, and nonprofits that appear to be coming from different worlds but are actually rallying around the same causes.
By doubling and interlinking the image, we could actually convey the first two letters of “Oommen” while also adding visual distinctiveness—a key ingredient of branding.
Standing the image upright provided a new connection: the double-O link also formed the “S” in “Sunil”—the business owner’s first name—that became subtly apparent.

Branding Strategy

As a design, the logo was almost done. It lacked branding that would convey the business’s personality, so I added an element of groundedness by boxing the entire image and a blue/gold palette symbolizing stability.
I realized that mix of inspiring social justice goals and hard-nosed fundraising skills was central to the brand. With this in mind, I collaborated with the owner to come up with the tagline shown.
With the logo and tagline in place, I could begin the process of branding all the marketing and communications materials, from business cards to letterhead and the website.
As a design, the logo was almost done. It lacked branding that would convey the business’s personality, so I added an element of groundedness by boxing the entire image and a blue/gold palette symbolizing stability.
I realized that mix of inspiring social justice goals and hard-nosed fundraising skills was central to the brand. With this in mind, I collaborated with the owner to come up with the tagline shown.
With the logo and tagline in place, I could begin the process of branding all the marketing and communications materials, from business cards to letterhead and the website.
As a design, the logo was almost done. It lacked branding that would convey the business’s personality, so I added an element of groundedness by boxing the entire image and a blue/gold palette symbolizing stability.
I realized that mix of inspiring social justice goals and hard-nosed fundraising skills was central to the brand. With this in mind, I collaborated with the owner to come up with the tagline shown.
With the logo and tagline in place, I could begin the process of branding all the marketing and communications materials, from business cards to letterhead and the website.

Case Study 2: The World Bank

The challenge: conveying crucial information in engaging ways

When working with the World Bank’s investor relations team, we needed to show investors the social and environmental impacts of investments, which was necessary for their internal reporting. But project data and other key details were packaged in vast, difficult-to-understand reports. The solution? Tailor multiple aspects and levels of information to different investor types with a range of clear, visually-compelling media to answer three central questions:
What are the country’s development challenges?
How was the World Bank project designed to address these challenges?
What were the results and ultimate impact of this project? 
Since in-person project tours were not feasible for all investors, I realized that we could give them the equivalent experience through compelling on-the-ground videos in these countries. In Colombia, this entailed documenting multiple perspectives on a major transportation project.
Methods of communication vary based on investor type, so while videos work for some, written material resonates with others. I created an annual newsletter adapting details into high-level information for this audience.
The World Bank's clients needed to report to their clients the granular details packed away in lengthy reports. I refreshed the Green Bond Impact Report to address these requests for high-level and granular data for multiple audiences.
Since in-person project tours were not feasible for all investors, I realized that we could give them the equivalent experience through compelling on-the-ground videos in these countries. In Colombia, this entailed documenting multiple perspectives on a major transportation project.
Methods of communication vary based on investor type, so while videos work for some, written material resonates with others. I created an annual newsletter adapting details into high-level information for this audience.
The World Bank's clients needed to report to their clients the granular details packed away in lengthy reports. I refreshed the Green Bond Impact Report to address these requests for high-level and granular data for multiple audiences.
Since in-person project tours were not feasible for all investors, I realized that we could give them the equivalent experience through compelling on-the-ground videos in these countries. In Colombia, this entailed documenting multiple perspectives on a major transportation project.
Methods of communication vary based on investor type, so while videos work for some, written material resonates with others. I created an annual newsletter adapting details into high-level information for this audience.
The World Bank's clients needed to report to their clients the granular details packed away in lengthy reports. I refreshed the Green Bond Impact Report to address these requests for high-level and granular data for multiple audiences.
Contact me at:
urvi@umehta.com
© Urvi Mehta, 2022