Northern Home for Children

Non-profits need design too. And if they ask nicely, designers are happy to do it pro-bono.

Admittedly as a young whippersnaper designer, I wasn’t involved in the world around me (my exes will vehemently confirm this). But an opportunity came up to do some quick pro-bono work for a local charity for children. I quickly stepped up, developed a simple concept to be used in print and web, executed said concept, and thought I had clearly saved the universe. The idea was just simplicity. Lots of whitespace. Big color photos of children. It was nice.

The site launched, mailers went out, and much to my chagrin, they didn’t like it. ”

It looks too designed. We are worried our donations will go down. People will think we spent our money on this.

Um, ok.

That was 2005. Time has since proven that people will give money to anything if it has a good message or mission behind it (see Kickstarter, Indiegogo, et al.). So, I hereby declare the original concept valid, if maybe slightly ahead of its time. Since then, I have found a love of basically, giving my design skills away to those in need. Let’s call it attrition for my years in advertising. Plus, I think this guy is spot on.

Launched: 2005
Client: Northern Home Children Services
Agency: 160over90
IX Designer: Giacomo Ciminello
Copywriter: Cory McCall
Creative Director: Darryl Cilli
Associate CD: Dan Shepelavy
Developer: Ryan Blain