The Opportunity

In 2017 EGPAF embarked on a website redesign that needed weave together their historical work—which helped reduce pediatric AIDS in the U.S. by more than 90%—with an expanding mission to end pediatric AIDS worldwide.

Approach

Embracing the need to weave past and present, the visual direction pulled inspiration from the logo. The logo features a painting by Ariel Glaser from 1988—the year she died from AIDS. Ariel drew the world as she saw it, “…a beautiful garden kept bright with sunshine and surrounded by love.”

The logo ties together the past, the present, and the vision for the future: A world without AIDS. The visual design pays homage to Ariel, her mother Elizabeth, and all the people working to create the world Ariel envisioned.

My role

Design Lead responsible for visual direction, concepts, page design, presentations, and a logo refresh.

Web Awards

• Communicator Awards, Award of Excellence, 2019

• Web Awards, Non-Profit Standard of Excellence, 2018

Website Design

The website needed to appeal to the general public, potential donors, and the scientific community. I created several pages to demonstrate how they could use design, content, and messaging differently within the design system to appeal to a variety of audiences.

The visual system included immersive imagery and stylized textures.

To ensure the EGPAF team could easily create designs on their own and use styles in other material, I created photoshop templates, a training guide, and an asset library, then trained the team on how to use them.

Logo Refresh

A few years later EGPAF needed a refreshed logo that felt more modern, incorporated their new tagline (Fighting for an AIDS-free generation), but that did not alter Ariel’s painting in any way.

I incorporated modern typography, adjusted text layout for readability, and replaced the ‘stamp’ border with a ‘picture frame’ border. Framing the logomark nicely aligned with Ariel’s painting. 

As a bonus, I created a logo variation that maintained the framing, but was optimized for social media.

Impact & Outcomes

• An updated website and visual system that helps tell engaging stories and promotes the important work done EGPAF, advocates, and researchers.

• Analytics showed an increase in engagement and donations.

• A refreshed logo (which a certain celebrity photographer and filmmaker described as “nicely done”…ha, not so humble brag).

Impact on me

This was one of my first high profile projects. It taught me a lot about web design, storytelling, and strategic messaging. It continues to serve as a reminder that we’re often dealing with real people and real stories. We should always design with empathy, compassion, and integrity to ensure the people featured in our work are treated with respect and dignity.