Fundraising for Nonprofit Organization

I worked with Barbara for almost a decade when I served as the director of development and marketing at Bet Tzedek. Barbara was a terrific partner and helped grow our fundraising base by designing a wide variety of collateral materials that created strong visual brands for our special events. She also created dozens of informational booklets for our clients by producing clear, easy-to-use guides on complex legal issues that became invaluable resources to the people we served. I relied on Barbara to produce our 300-page dinner journals which she did with great style, precision and razor-sharp organizational skills. Her design talents are complemented by a calm, unflappable and gracious personality. I can enthusiastically recommend her for any graphic design project.  

Gina Lobaco
CFRE

Targeting Internal Audiences with Traditional Media

In an increasingly digital world, it can be easy to forget that electronic communications aren’t necessarily the only—or best—solution. Sometimes, traditional design approaches using off-set printing and snail mail are more effective.

That’s the case with The Little Jake Report, a print newsletter targeting the employees and families of E&B Paving, one of Indiana’s largest transportation construction firms. Consistently communicating with more than 1,000 employees and seasonal construction crew members working from a dozen offices and 18 production plants throughout Indiana—many of whom do not have work or home email addresses—can be challenging. However, E&B is committed to keeping everyone abreast of corporate developments, construction project successes and job site safety messages.

Not So Square Design designs and helps coordinate production of The Little Jake Report three times annually. Always upbeat and loaded with photographs, this publication not only keeps team members and their families up to speed on companywide news, but plays a vital role in supporting broader employee morale initiatives.

While not everyone at E&B Paving has email, they all have a home mailing address, which is why this traditional print solution works so well in today’s digital age.

Not So Square Design is a valued member of our marketing communications team and has helped take this simple newsletter to new heights. Barbara performs very well under tight deadlines, and even though she works thousands of miles away from our offices in Indiana, you would think she is just down the hall with her timely feedback and communications. For each issue, Not So Square Design thoughtfully lays out The Little Jake Report to communicate our company’s news in a consistent manner that supports internal branding standards. The newsletter helps make our employees proud to work at E&B, thus contributing to a corporate goal of being Indiana’s employer of choice in the transportation construction industry.

Kevin Kruckeberg
Business Development Manager
E&B Paving, Inc.
Anderson, Ind.

Creating a Graphic Identity from an Intangible Dream

In 2015, Not So Square Design received a request to create a graphic identity.  Sounds pretty basic. Until you realize the graphic identity was for an intangible idea that only existed in the client’s mind. This idea was just a dream that could one day become something much bigger—perhaps a company or even a global charity—but for the time being, was simply a concept that had yet to take shape. And once the vision started becoming something more tangible (which could be several years down the road), the original graphic identity had to be usable regardless of the dream’s ultimate end point.

The challenge was to create a design that communicated a concept that bicycles can be a force of good in the world.

As a starting point, Not So Square Design believed in this dream, which boosted the client’s confidence that the resulting graphic identity could capture the essence of the idea. From there, Barbara brainstormed the concept further with the client to gather words, phrases and suggested imagery that articulated how people could reimagine bicycles as a means of community and economic empowerment.

The resulting Force of Good graphic identity features a bold blue color, a cycling icon graphic that creatively integrates with the logo type font, and a sense of forward motion that the client believes will propel this dream into improving lives in emerging market nations. Not So Square created the graphics so they can be easily and flexibly used in print, electronic, social media and promotional advertising applications. So whatever the client dreams up next, the Force of Good’s graphic identity will fit right in.

I knew a creative, well designed graphic identity could help communicate my dream, and I believed in Not So Square Design to help me articulate the vision. The brainstorming process I had with Barbara was vital: She listened carefully, asked many questions that helped shape and refine my laundry list of identity ideas, and enthusiastically supported the dream’s general direction. From this blank sheet of paper, she crafted an extraordinarily original logo design that caught the attention of people worldwide in just a few months via social media.

Steve Rudner
Founder
Force of Good
San Luis Obispo, Calif.