Scaling the Social Institution of Tomorrow
Scope: Brand Design, Art Direction
Freelance, 2018-Ongoing
In 2016, Henry Elkus & Sam Feinburg dropped out of Yale to start Helena, a new kind of institution dedicated to solving global problems. In 2018, I joined Helena as a Research Fellow, but soon transitioned into a design role. As the sole creative on the team, I partner directly with the CEO and senior leadership.
Sharpening the Initial Brand The original mark held promise, but was disjointed. An angular beam formed the crossbar in the “H” monogram, symbolizing Helena’s aspirations. However, the beam was absent in the wordmark.
My first decision was to integrate the beam into the wordmark and focus the brand around two workhorse elements: a rich blue to signal authority, and the Aktiv Grotesk superfamily to express Helena’s ambitions as a new kind of institution. We had to manufacture credibility out of thin air.
A Visual System that Lives Behind-the-Scenes
Helena isn’t a particularly public-facing organization. Though it has a sizable front-door presence on web and social, the vast majority of its branded materials are circulated through secure channels such as Telegram and Signal.
To maintain brand consistency across Helena’s one-pagers, pitch decks and data visualizations, I devised a visual system that combines textural imagery and minimal linework to express authority, movement, and scale—key traits of the client. I kept this system flexible, responding to the vast scope of Helena’s work, while maintaining cohesion over the last 8 years.
In the real world, Helena hosts Helena Meetings—intimate, curated convenings where Members meet to coordinate efforts. Branded moments are kept intentionally minimal, premium, and high-touch, always in service to the conversations, ideas, and solutions at hand.
I’ve also extended the brand in print publications.
Bringing the Helena Ethos Into the Public Sphere Certain Helena Projects require brands entirely separate from the mothership. The foremost example is America In One Room (A1R), one of the most significant political experiments in US history. As a Helena Project, A1R translates Helena’s key traits into a brand that projects authority in our polarized political environment, yet remains above the fray & grounded in nonpartisan objectivity. The project has no precedent, so the visual brand was critical in framing the work so A1R could break through the noise of today’s media landscape.
Above: The inaugural America in One Room in Dallas, TX, taken by me. My photos were published in NowThis, FiveThirtyEight, Salon, and Stanford News. The project was independently mentioned by Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton.
In 2023, I refreshed the A1R logo and created brand architecture to support multiple iterations of the project, as it needed to accommodate a range of demographics, locales, and issue areas.
America In One Room: The Youth Vote
With a Gen Z version of the event in mind, I turned to isometric geometry to symbolize a literal ‘room’, and infuse a new edge to the brand while keeping it unmistakably A1R.
The physical context was tricky—the convention space was in the hotel basement, down two flights of escalators. I needed the signage to create an immersive branded environment in rooms with ceilings as low as eight feet. I conducted a site visit with the VP of Programming and made recommendations on where we could maximize brand visibility, both for the attendees and for the cameras.
America in One Room: The Youth Vote received coverage in Good Morning America, NBC Nightly News, and the Wall Street Journal. I created a social & web campaign to illustrate the results.
America In One Room: Pennsylvania
I pushed the brand system further, adding the dimension to the geometry and forming it into key PA symbols, incorporating the keystone, the liberty bell, and the state map into the signage. Additional tints and shades were brought in to color-code the credentials.
I joined the team in Philadelphia for the three day convention and provided on-site design and photo support. Witnessing ordinary citizens bridge their differences in real time was inspiring, and reminded me why I’m a brand designer. Secretary Hillary Clinton and Governor Josh Shapiro attended the event and delivered remarks.
America in One Room represents design’s most prominent role in the Helena brand. Usually design plays in the background, quietly signaling and gesturing. At A1R, design is the protagonist, loudly announcing Helena’s work to the world. It’s been an honor to play every role.
America in One Room: Pennsylvania was featured in CNN and Politico. Deliberation data from A1R:PA led to a historic policy commitment from the PA State House, informing the reconciliation of PA House Bill 1396, an election reform package. A feature-length documentary about the event is in production.