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New Jersey Young Professionals Branding and Website
Client: New Jersey Young Professionals
Background: New Jersey Young Professionals (NJYP), is a social and networking organization for professionals between the ages of 21 and 39. In looking for their new branding, the group held a logo contest open to all members.
What was the challenge that NJYP presented you with?
NJYP’s ultimate goal was to create a brand and website that would introduce the organization to prospective members while retaining current members. The website needed to be a hub of activity for the group; the objectives included creating a center of communications for members, entertaining the members, promoting the group to prospective investors, and generating revenues from advertising via the site.
How did you go about meeting that challenge?
The project kicked off with a logo contest open to members of the NJYP Yahoo! Group. Paul Kiesche Design submitted three logo choices – the design had to be both professional and yet retain a fun, edgy feel. On January 18th, 2006 Paul Kiesche Design was chosen as the winner of the contest. The logo was finalized and delivered; Paul Kiesche Design was then hired to create a full brand for NJYP including customized stationery and a new website.
NJYP’s first challenge was to raise the development capital to fund the building of the website. In order to raise interest, a T-shirt promotion was designed which included a custom brochure website to entice existing members to sign up for a Premium Membership. The promotion included perks such as advance access to the website, along with a custom-designed T-shirt.
After the capital was raised, the new site was designed. NJYP is an organization full of young, fun professionals and the site needed to reflect the unique, intelligent demographic of the members. The site was designed to be simple, clean, functional, and informative. In conjunction with Daniel Hadden Photography and Painted Eyes Production, Paul Kiesche Design directed a photo and video shoot of members at an NJYP event. Original photography was used throughout the site. Following the shoot, the information architecture for the website was created; this included user personas, wireframes, a sitemap, user flow analysis, and more. The purpose of the IA was to ensure user accessibility, site flow, and it included a five year projection for expansion. The design of the site followed, fusing elements of flash and traditional HTML to enhance the visual aesthetic with motion while remaining both search engine friendly and functional.
What inspired you on the design of this project?
As a member of NJYP, I was a part of the demographic so it was easy to find themes and ideas which would resonate. The group is made of professionals so the design had to reflect that status; but it also had to be appealing to the right group. We wanted a fun, energetic, colorful design that mirrored the events held by the organization.
How was the design implemented?
The first stage of any site design is the information architecture. This created a blueprint of what the site needed to contain, what it should contain, and how it could grow in years to come. The theme of the site followed the direction of the logo – simple, yet fun and serious enough to reflect the young but professional members of the group. Following the logo and the site, the stationery completed the full rebranding.
How was the project received? What were the results?
The pre-launch was a very successful effort in promotions; by the time the promotion finished over 200 members had pre-paid their memberships. Upon the release of the site more than 500 members joined; and within the first week there were over 1,100 registered, active users on the site. As of May 2008, there are over 10,000 members active on the site. The site and logo have been featured in several publications, including NJBIZ, The Roxbury Register, Dexigner.com, and designtaxi.com. The NJYP website was awarded the Art Directors Certificate of Excellence from the Art Directors Club of NJ and the Bronze Award from Horizon Interactive Awards.
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