Before
The task was simple: “Make this look good.”
Playworks has an annual kickball tournament to raise money for its mission: to bring out the best in every kid through the power of play. However, because of the pandemic, the tournament needed to be revised in a way that participants could still have a healthy dose of competition…from their own homes.
Writing Efficiency
The first thing I do with every redesign project is remove the styling and focus first on the content. We often make things bigger or bolder to emphasize them, but the result is a document with 10 different fonts, 14 different font sizes, and way too many colors. By bringing everything down to the same size and color, we can focus on making the words more efficient, then worry about sizes and colors.
This poster has a lot to say in a limited space:
- It’s a virtual tournament
- The original plan has been revised
- There is a date range
- It is a fundraiser for Playworks’ Play at Home content
- There are 4 steps to register
- Contact Brandon for more
To optimize the white space and leave enough room for the design to “breathe,” I narrowed the content down to say only this:
This year’s 10th Annual Kickball Tournament is now the Virtual Home Run Challenge!
Play is more important than ever right now. Kids need play to stay active, manage stress, and build valuable life skills. This event is a fundraiser to support the Playworks Play at Home content, which provides free resources, videos, and game ideas to keep kids engaged.
How to Participate:
• Gather a team of up to 15 coworkers
• Come up with a fun team name
• Choose a captain
• Register via emailFor more information or to register your team, contact
Program Manager Brandon Elsner: brandon.elsner@playworks.org
Already, without any formatting, the information feels less daunting. It gives the same amount of detail, but by using less words, which makes the reader feel less bombarded by what they’re seeing.
Branding Guidelines
The next step is to ask: does your organization have a branding style guide? The answer is almost always “yes.” Surprisingly, many employees outside the design team don’t even know it exists! But that style guide is important; it was created by experts in an attempt to professionally unify how the organization’s public content should look, and it should be followed closely for the best possible results.
Playworks has a very detailed style guide, and it was clear that the creator of this first image did not follow it. Please note: I don’t judge people for not knowing design principles—that’s what I’m here for! My job is to help you bring out the best in your work, so that’s what I did.
Using a few of their branded infographics as an inspiration, I covered the same kickball image from the original with a few different transparent color gradients from the Playworks style guide.
I showed all these attempts to the client, and they were most satisfied with the dark blue background and light blue highlight text. The only thing missing was to highlight that this tournament had been revised.
Boom. A nice little corner triangle with some orange letters, and now the poster really breathes! But you know I can’t stop with just one little image! I think it’s best to provide options, in case the client wanted to use this graphic on multiple different social media accounts.
Copy-paste, readjust for every social media size, and we’re done!
After
The Home Run Challenge had 130 participants (myself included). 10 teams produced lots of funny selfie pictures, and totaled 5.9 MILLION steps to ensure kids have access to safe and healthy play. While they couldn’t be together in person, it was a great time for a great cause, and I was honored to help them bring it all together.