A youth-forward visual identity designed to connect students with meaningful work experiences, build trust with parents and employers, and establish EDGE as a distinct program within the OneSpartanburg, Inc. brand ecosystem.
Organization: OneSpartanburg, Inc.
Role: Lead Designer
Scope: Brand Identity, Campaigns, Collateral, Photography
The Challenge
One Program.
Multiple Audiences.
EDGE needed an identity that could resonate with students while earning the confidence of parents, educators and corporate employers. The brand also needed to meet the needs of multiple organizational stakeholders, including OneSpartanburg, Inc. and Movement 2030, while remaining recognizable as part of the larger OneSpartanburg brand ecosystem.
The challenge was creating an identity distinctive enough for EDGE to stand on its own, yet connected enough to its parent organizations to benefit from their established recognition and credibility.
Youthful, Not Juvenile
Appeal to both high school and college students without feeling designed for children.
Flexible By Design
Create a system capable of supporting recruitment, employer engagement, partnerships, digital campaigns, recruitment events and physical applications.
Professional, Not Corporate
Build confidence among employers of different industries, parents and educators.
The resulting identity combines bold typography, vibrant color and flexible graphic elements to create a system that feels energetic and contemporary while remaining structured enough for professional environments.
The EDGE brand guidelines established a visual framework for internal teams, vendors and external partners, helping the identity remain recognizable across everything from recruitment materials to employer communications.
Meet The Identity
Built for Consistency
Because EDGE works alongside employers, schools and community partners, the system also needed clear standards for co-branding. Partner guidelines established how organizations could use the EDGE identity, required attribution and co-branding treatments while maintaining consistency across the program.
The identity expanded across physical and digital touchpoints designed to keep EDGE recognizable wherever students, employers and partners encountered the program.
To expand employer participation, I developed a campaign focused on positioning work-based learning as an investment in Spartanburg's future workforce. Messaging and visuals shifted toward employers while remaining connected to the larger EDGE identity.
As EDGE grew, photography became another part of the visual system, documenting students in real workplace environments and creating authentic imagery for future recruitment and storytelling.
Photography
