Smile Team Logo & Core Identity
Volunteered work for Smile Team at National Trade Productions (NTP) and CSG Creative by Lara Lee. (Lara Lee retains copyright.)
Background
The Smile Team is a volunteer group composed of employees from National Trade Productions (NTP) and its in-house marketing agency CSG Creative all dedicated to promoting a fun, positive office culture. Whether by recognizing employee milestones like work anniversaries or birthdays, sponsoring holiday festivities, or inviting employees to simply take pause in the workday to get social with each other, Smile Team is a big part of the company culture.
Smile Team had no graphics nor any logo or other identifying marks. As a result, people failed to distinguish Smile Team events from others and perceived Smile Team events as less professional.
A team member of Smile Team expressed a desire to stand out better while it’s conducting its operations in the office. An official logo design, core identity, and marketing kit for Smile Team will improve its public perception and facilitate both internal and external communications.
My Role
Logo Designer
Graphic & Web Designer
HTML Email Developer
Agency
Volunteered
The Results
The Strategy Behind the Smile
It all begins with the logo design, the primary identifying mark of Smile Team. A Smile Team member described their brand as “friendly” and “festive,” so the logo needed to be personable. Yet Smile Team is also an office event. The logo design also needed to be trim and tidy.
Furthermore, Smile Team’s core identity is fun and festive with its iconic artsy palette. Most importantly, since volunteers who may or may not have graphic design experience will handle Smile Team creative and marketing, the new core identity remains easy to execute using pre-built templates and a library of on-brand graphics.
MailChimp HTML Email Templates Extend the Core Identity
The Smile Team was the most excited when I unveiled their custom, responsive, mobile-friendly HTML email templates. (For the record, I was told, their frenemy Culture Club does not have branded emails.)
The templates are: Memo with Photo, Memo without Photo, Featured Event, Upcoming Events, and Newsletter. The variety gives Smile Team a lot of flexibility to advertise events and share news.
Each HTML email template design is also compatible with MailChimp’s WYSIWYG editor so Smile Team members can create custom emails without any coding experience whatsoever.
As a result, Smile Team’s core identity expanded into the digital realm with low-cost ease.
For more great web design, check out my Case Study on a Townhouse Landscaping Proposal Web App and visit the online app!
