How do organizations honor the past while looking toward the future? The Arthur Vining Davis Foundations (AVDF) was at this crossroads when they reached out for our help. AVDF has evolved since its founding in 1952, but their evolution outpaced their messaging and visual identity. Research indicated the organization’s brand had become a bit “stodgy” and lacked focus overall. AVDF needed a new identity that was clear, modern, and angled toward the future without abandoning their storied past. We came through with a comprehensive brand strategy and modern web design to match.
We dug deeply into the real issues at hand to craft a strategic plan and recommend the best way forward.
After learning everything that AVDF is and what they believe, we created a comprehensive, authentic brand identity.
With a new brand comes a new website, and for AVDF, a site that is equally practical and visually engaging.
After auditing the brand, we uncovered a diverse list of funding areas that didn’t appear organized by any central brand vision. This lack of structure needed to be clarified before we were able to develop a unified identity.
We documented everything that drives key audiences to engage with AVDF, including financial, emotional, self-reflective, and functional motivations. A deep understanding of the various target markets is vital to the success of the new brand strategy.
Classic, elegant, but still undeniably modern – the logo we designed for The Arthur Vining Davis Foundations simultaneously draws on the existing personality of the organization while pushing toward a future that’s both bold and bright.
There’s a thin line between looking timeless and looking outdated. We aimed for the former with our choice of fonts and color palette for AVDF, and ended up with a brand that feels simultaneously modern and classic.
This bold yet somewhat traditional font has a modern feel, yet fits nicely with AVDF’s storied mission.
By sticking within the same type family for subheadings, we were able to create a sense of cohesion between typefaces.
This san serif font adds balance to AVDF’s suite of typefaces and serves as a clean and readable choice for body text.
We collaborated with the AVDF team to chart the specific journey each of their audience personas must take to achieve stated goals on the new site. Ironically, this structured exercise allowed us to think outside the box, coming up with new ways to engage, delight, and reduce friction in the UX.
We developed a new direction for AVDF’s sitemap that put the user’s needs first. By clarifying the main navigation and elevating past grantees to highlight AVDF’s impact, we created an experience that told the story of the organization while pragmatically making important information easy to access.
