Emergent Grounds

Emergent Ground

Building a brand for a non profit organization with the strange goal of putting itself out of business.

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A social justice art and design program for impoverished youth, Emergent Ground fosters positive change for the Oakland, California community - block by block. After receiving their MFA’s from the coveted Rhode Island School of Design, the Emergent Ground co-founders relocated to Oakland, CA. Rooted in landscape architecture, art, design, and social justice, the two set out to make change with the youth-centered community in schools around the city through cooperative projects focused on transforming the environments they live in. We advocated for a positive strategy that helped define positive opportunities rather than a more negative approach. Loaded with a luminous directive we helped design a visual language to deliver the organization's message.

Team
Tyler Mintz

Our Role
Branding
Copywriting
Creative Direction
Graphic Design
User Experience Design
Development

#uc_work_text_block_vc66436_container #uc_work_text_block_vc66436 { background: #fff; } #uc_work_text_block_vc66436_container #uc_work_text_block_vc66436 span { padding: 50px 165px 50px 65px; } #uc_work_text_block_vc66436 > * { font-size: 24px; font-family: "Silka"; font-weight: 500; color: #391515; line-height: 1.2; }

Fixed with firm meaning, Emergent Ground’s visual identity lays hold of spirited color, activated photography and energetic visuals. We created systematic patterns using geometric shapes commonly found in architecture and design.

#uc_work_text_block_vc102934_container #uc_work_text_block_vc102934 { background: #fff; } #uc_work_text_block_vc102934_container #uc_work_text_block_vc102934 span { padding: 50px 150px 50px 150px; } #uc_work_text_block_vc102934 > * { font-size: 24px; font-family: "Silka"; font-weight: 500; color: #873939; line-height: 1.2; }

Contour lines split the brands' logotype symbolizing the figure-ground reversal commonly found in Oakland and similar communities whose built environments benefit the elite but can flipflop given the appropriate resources and opportunity.

#uc_work_text_block_vc152918_container #uc_work_text_block_vc152918 { background: #391515; } #uc_work_text_block_vc152918_container #uc_work_text_block_vc152918 span { padding: 50px 50px 50px 50px; } #uc_work_text_block_vc152918 > * { font-size: 26px; font-family: "Silka"; font-weight: 500; color: #fff; line-height: 1.2; }

The result? By tinkering with the symbolic, we were able to open people to the broader, more complex message in visual shorthand.

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