“Be the One”

In talking with Henoc about his sister-in-law Cecilia, I felt we were going to get the best result if we shot an editorial style interview with Henoc and his wonderful wife Jess. I wanted the video to mostly focus on Cecilia's story, her battle with blood cancer, and the importance of organizations like the LLS. Then we could tie in "Be the One" as an ask at the end of video for viewers to contribute towards the campaign. I wrote some interview questions, and Ro coordinated schedules with Henoc and Jess. Ro live-streamed the interview sessions for me so I could provide direction on composition and throw in some impromptu questions as I was taking in the responses. Ro nailed the setup and interviews, and what we ended up with was a powerful story of life and legacy. Henoc and Jess really opened up about Cecilia's life and the major impact she left in just a short time. They shared the importance of community in tough times, and how organizations like the LLS can be that for people; going way beyond just the research and development they help to fund. It was truly moving.

I knew we were going to want to do some branding work to create a recognizable mark and aesthetic that would nod heavily to that of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society so as to associate our campaign with their cause. But, I also wanted something that still fit Henoc's personal brand as well. For me it started with the font I chose for the video work, Bebas Neue. I started with a series of Social Media Templates that we would be using to raise awareness for the campaign and the LLSC. I pulled the red color #cd2518 from the LLS logo to be used. I also noticed the use of thin lines (often in criss-crossed patterns in some of the branded pitch decks I received from the LLS, so I incorporated them in a vertical fashion to tie in that design element. Lastly, I wanted to incorporated Henoc's brand mark (a stylized "H" and "M") along with the blood drop from the LLS mark as a sort of watermark for the social media posts. You can see the final result below with these #TIPTUESDAY and #FACTFRIDAY posts we made on Instagram. We also incorporated the #betheonenow along with every post on social.

I also knew I would be needing an actual "Be the One" logo mark for use on other promotional material. Henoc and his team had several events planned, including a golf scramble that I was hosting, so I wanted to create a mark that could be used in branding those events. I started with my Bebas font and did some iterations to incorporate a blood drop as an homage to the LLS logo. I also played around with trying to incorporate a "1" into the logo. I ultimately liked the symmetry of the mark on the right where the blood drop filled the negative space created by the left aligned typography.

For the Man and Woman of the Year campaign, each team member is challenged to raise funds towards the MWOY candidate's overall goal. I set my personal goal at $5,000 and decided that the path of least resistance to that raise was to do a golf scramble. I've never organized an event like this in the past, but I knew my event planning work with Apex would give me a leg up. I also had a great resource in my cousin, Jessica Read, who has led many fundraising campaigns for the United Way, The Villages, and currently the PTO at her kids' school, among others. I quickly found a course, picked an event date, and set my tiers at a reasonable amount given the timeline and fundraising goal. Unfortunately, I still had two major challenges to overcome.