Client
Dream Youth Summit
Youth Event Branding · Identity Design · Marketing Collateral
Dream Youth Summit
A youth volunteer summit built around service, possibility, and the belief that where someone begins does not define where they can go. Dream Youth Summit connected primarily Black and minority teens with community service, mentorship, education, and firsthand exposure to professionals from healthcare, higher education, banking, business, nonprofit service, and ministry. The event identity translates that mission into movement, combining art direction, Brand Identity, Editorial Design, and visual storytelling around growth, initiative, and opportunity.
Project Overview
Opportunity Becomes More Powerful When You Can See It
First Church of God served as the community anchor for Dream Youth Summit, bringing teenagers, families, mentors, and sponsors together around service, aspiration, and opportunity. The program was designed primarily for Black and minority teens, many from communities where the church plays an important role in family life, mentorship, support, and connection. Participants were encouraged to volunteer, give back to their communities, and see themselves as active participants in shaping their future.
The program also connected participants directly with professionals and organizations representing real educational and career paths. The sponsor coalition included First Church of God, Mount Carmel, Coca-Cola, Columbus State Community College, Panera Bread, The Ohio State University Medical Center, Mid-America Christian University, Huntington Bank, Costco Wholesale, the American Red Cross, and Williams Interior Designs. Together, they provided exposure to healthcare, higher education, banking, business, nonprofit service, ministry, and other professional fields, making the summit not simply an event about aspiration, but a place where opportunity was made visible through real people and institutions.
My Role
art direction, visual design, Event Branding, Brand Identity, Editorial Design, and Production.
Project Goal
Create a youth-focused identity that communicates service, aspiration, resilience, and opportunity while remaining polished enough for the corporate, educational, healthcare, nonprofit, and community organizations supporting the event.
Deliverables
Logo & Identity Design, Stationery, Event Booklet, Editorial Layout, and Supporting Event Collateral.
Designing for Who They Were and Who They Were Becoming
The visual identity had to connect with teenagers at a fluid stage of becoming, without speaking down to them or presenting youth culture through an adult stereotype. At the same time, the work needed the polish and credibility expected by the corporate, educational, healthcare, nonprofit, and community organizations supporting the event. The resulting system balances youthful energy, optimism, and movement with clear typography, structured editorial design, and professional presentation.
The central figure became a metaphor for the summit itself. Inspired by the motion of an athlete clearing a hurdle, the body appears to spring upward and forward. One side remains connected to the point of departure, while the outstretched arm reaches toward possibility. The mark expresses resilience without defining the audience by disadvantage, using forward motion to represent service, growth, opportunity, and the confidence to imagine a larger future.
Visual Work
The selected work moves from the primary identity into stationery and a multi-page event booklet, showing how the summit’s message of service, initiative, and opportunity was carried from recognition-driven branding into practical event communication.
