Ban the Tan

I love designing for causes. There's a warm fuzzy feeling that comes along with knowing you had a hand in creating something that has an effect on people in an emotional way. For this project, I decided to brand a campaign for a social cause or movement, rather than a for-profit product. Skin cancer is one of the most common forms of cancer and also one of the most preventable. Ban The Tan is a campaign aimed at teenagers (age 14 to 18, primarily female) to encourage them to prevent skin cancer by wearing sunscreen and not tanning or burning in the sun.

I've found most campaigns aimed at teenagers try to scare them into cooperating - think anti-smoking ads showing black lungs or anti-drunk driving ads showing bloody car crashes. While that may work in those cases, they make viewers feel like they're being scolded by an adult. Hardly a way to get them involved in the cause. For my campaign, I decided to come from a more friendly standpoint using a sarcastic, "oh no you didn't" tone (think of the movies "Clueless" or "Mean Girls") in slogans and materials to bring a sense of humor to the campaign. By making the cause fun and funny, it make the audience want to join in promoting the campaign through wearing branded merchandise, spreading materials across social media, discussing advertisements with friends, and so forth.

The campaign called for two logos - one for the campaign itself and one for the parent organization that would sponsor the campaign, were it a real one, the National Comprehensive Cancer Control Program (NCCCP).
The NCCCP logo is straight-forward, a logomark contained in a circle that echos the forms of the letters, colored in the unofficial cancer support color, lavender. While the NCCCP is an organization, I didn't want the logo to look too corporate because cancer is such an emotional issue. I aimed to strike a balance between the two sides.
The Ban The Tan logo is much bolder to really get the message across. The stacked orientation emphasizes each individual word and gives it a punch. A color palette of bright colors in all of the rainbow was selected to use for this logo and all promotional materials.





The central component of this campaign is the advertisements. A series of 8 posters, in two sets, were created to be displayed at locations where teenagers and the outdoors meet- beaches, parks, concerts, bus stops, amusement parks, etc. There are two sets of 4, with each set taking a different viewpoint. The first set is pro-pale and features characters from popular culture (what teenager doesn't love pop culture?) that are know for being pale and are appreciated for it. The second set is ant-tan/burn, yelling out reasons why tanning should be avoided.

Each set has an aesthetic that reflects it's message- the pro-pale posters are smooth, shiny, and refreshing. The anti-tan posters are cracked, aggressive, and kind of gross. Both sets feature strong, dynamic type to get the attention of the viewer and get across how important this message is.

Also created was a booklet that could be handed out at events, sent in the mail as part of promotional packets, placed on counters or information booths in public areas. This booklet, "The Big Book of Very Bad Tans", is a humorous look at the ugly side of tanning - tan lines. The tan lines are given names and are illustrated with a bold red to represent burns and secondary colors taken from the color palette. The booklet finishes with informational facts about skin cancer and tips on how to avoid burning and tanning.










Stickers were also created as hand-outs. In the one below, the sticker is the logo printed on a clear sheet. Would could be a good use of such a thing? How about teaching sleeping tanners a little lesson? Not that I would ever advocate such a mean spirited thing. Never.



Alternative sticker. Tanning bed = death bed. Gets the message across with strong imagery and muted, eerie colors.


Teenagers LOVE free stuff. They flock to it like seagulls to a french fry. Branded merchandise is one of the greatest ways to promote to a younger crowd as they don't particularly mind becoming a walking billboard.

All merchandise created for the campaign features the logo - and thus, the message- on white (for contrast) with the logo available in all the colors of the color palette. All the merchadise was chosen with purpose - shirts, light-weight sweatshirts, and umbrellas are all useful for covering up at the park or when hanging outside. Canvas totes are great for carrying belongings to the beach, which is where this message really counts. And bracelets and pins - wearable and collectible - are always a solid choice as they can go anywhere and with anything.





Missing for this post: The website and twitter. Not having a social media element in a campaign aimed at teenagers would just be silly. That's currently being work on so keep an eye out for that.

Web/Interactive work

I've been lucky enough to be exposed to a fair amount of web and interactive design. I enjoy the challenge of designing experiences, of having to predict how people act, and having to work within a set of limitations. Unfortunately, my lack of math/science/technical side means that a few of the projects shown below never became fully realized. But I'm very proud of the designs.

Clegg Lacrosse - HTML site showing off the accomplishments of the 3 Clegg siblings. View it here.

Why Reform? - interactive (flash) site explaining the reasons we should reform health care (which, happily, ended up happening.)

Cheese - informational site explaining all about cheese (also flash)

Design for the interface of a touch-screen, in-home console that controls electrical systems.

Design for a widget for Syracuse.com, a local news website.

And of course, my website (which you should totally show to everyone you know and their families. Help me out, I could use a job).

Broadway Market Identity

Broadway Market identity design and process work (click to enlarge/see proper color).


A few initial designs.

Expansion, with color.
After some tweaking, the final solution.

Identity applied across materials. The goal was to provide the market with options for professional printing as well as in-house printing.

Colgate-Palmolive challenge

Colgate-Palmolive issued us a challenge: create a packaging concept for an environmentally-friendly, waste-reducing dishwasher liquid concentrate. Quite a task, eh? Working with a team consisting of 2 other graphic designers (Nicole Zigmont and Michael North) and 2 packaging science students (Valerie Nadeau and Jessica Pirrello), we can up with a solution that emcompasses all those details.


Palmolive Reduction is shipped as an empty bottle with an attached packet of dishwasher concentrate (4x the normal concentration) stored under a refill cap. By shipping a concentrate, water is conserved and shipping costs reduced. The consumer also saves more by only needing to purchase refill packets instead of new bottles when they run out of dishwashing liquid.

Seeing an empty bottle on a store shelf can be a bit scary to consumers so the surface of the bottle is made of cloudy white plastic, excluding the front window. The window, a transparent plastic, allows the consumer to see how much liquid they have left as they use it. It also reinforces the idea of "reduction" - the curve of the window tapers down and, as the consumer uses the liquid, they are reminded that they are reducing their waste. The bottle of made of sturdy plastic that will allow it to be used again and again without any issues.


The back label explains the concept of Palmolive Reduction. We broke the mixing process down into 4 easy steps, complete with easy to decipher imagery. The overall look of the label - both front and back- was heavily influenced by Palmolive's current product, Pure + Clear

Views of the bottle in several stages of use. The bottle, when shipped, contains one concentrate packet for the user to mix immediately ("full bottle without refill packet"). Once the consumer uses up their initial mix, they can then purchase the refill bottle that contains two concentrate packets. They can mix one packet up and store the other packet under the refill cap ("Full bottle with refill packet").

Two color/scent options for Palmolive to extend Reduction's life down the line. The great thing about using concentrate packets is that users can mix and match - they may buy a bottle with the original scent to begin with, but they can buy the "Citrus Rush" refill and use it with the bottle they have at home.

The gravity feed cap is a great feature for our bottle. The cap is located on the bottom of the bottle and has no lid (the liquid is held in by gravity), meaning there is no wrestling with caps or turning slippery bottles upside down while you're up to your arms in suds. The user simply has to grab the bottle, squeeze it once, and return it to it's place on the sink's edge. The gravity feed also allows an exact dosage to be measured out so one squeeze can do a whole load of dishes, saving the consumer from wasting their product due to over usage. The wide bottom of the gravity feed also helped balance the bottle.

The refill package echoes the bottle package, but is in a more compact form that allows it to be stacked on shelves, conserving space. It holds 2 packets of concentrate, one for immediately mixing and one for storage. We also chose to only sell 2 because we are aware of how long the concentrate lasts, and we didn't want the consumer to buy 1 dosage and then not be seen again for a year. That would hurt Palmolive's bottom line.

Mock-up of products on store shelves.

We competed against 3 other teams and their concepts, pitching them to Colgate-Palmolive at the end of February. I am happy to say our concept was deemed the best, and we were awarded a sweet little prize for our efforts.