SUPERSTORM

“Being seen by others helps individuals identify their strengths and weaknesses, and being seen by people who edify each other supercharges that growth.”

In the halls of my college, there was a serious class divide. It wasn’t the sort that came from money, but it did come from the context of where the juniors and seniors would be compared to to the freshmen and sophomores. What the talents of Grace College lacked was a common ground: somewhere to meet up and kick around ideas together. So, when it came time to engage my budding design repertoire with a social problem, I chose this lack of community. Thus, SUPERSTORM, the zany idea to encourage networking with a set of visual identifiers and a brand which claimed people as part of their community. The goal was simple: make a brand which stands out and taps into the identity of all sorts of creatives, then make that brand a beacon for creative community.

There were a few new ideas which I played with. The first was making a modular logo, which could be modified to incorporate new creative disciplines. The second was a the secret sauce to an energetic branding identity. The last was applying designs to products. I loved each twist of the brand.

In the end, I look back and realize that I missed the intended design goal, even though I ended up with a killer brand. What I wish I had known was that self-identification isn’t what helps people grow. Being seen by others helps individuals identify their strengths and weaknesses, and being seen by people who edify each other supercharges that growth. Making the space for people to meet should have come first. Regardless of that conceptual failure, I think the work holds water, and it could very well rear its head in some future iteration.