SHIELD Mentor Program is a leadership

organization for youth ages 9-18.

With a focus on mentorship, SHIELD exposes students to

educational opportunities that build practical skills and character.

photos from SHIELD Mentor Program

background

SHIELD Mentor Program was born from a passion to serve youth. In 2008, Precious McKoy founded the organization to provide leadership, character building, and educational resources to local minority students. The SHIELD acronym represents the 5 pillars of its curriculum: Strengthen, Help, Inspire, Encourage, Leadership Development.

As challenges arise, McKoy wanted to provide a space where teens could learn and grow into who they desire to be. Experiential learning, community service, and group mentorship are important to the SHIELD program model. These values reflect the way SHIELD's organizers and volunteers lead, and provide an outlet for participants to engage in self-discovery.

Though the structure was there, McKoy believed her organization needed a fresh look to attract teens, make stronger connections in the community, and gain partnership.

original logo

the challenge

SHIELD and its approach to leadership and learning had evolved, but the visual identity had not. SHIELD needed a way to reflect its evolution and values more accurately and decided to start with its visual branding. The team also sought a more professional and sophisticated look to use for recruiting and advertising materials. The leaders knew exactly what they wanted, so we began our rebranding process there.

The Creative Brief: Redesign the visual identity of SHIELD Mentor Program to reflect leadership, success, and action.

the strategy

Since there was an existing identity, we didn’t want to stray too far from what had already been established. Something cleaner and more modern was requested, but reflecting some consistencies was important as well. After analyzing the brand goals and visuals in place, we had reached two major conclusions.

The eagle imagery had become important to SHIELD. This was the way the organization thought of its emerging leaders and their ability to be strong and reach immeasurable heights. But McKoy also referenced the brand colors often, as they correlated with the 5 pillars of the curriculum. Dark purple (strength), orange (help), blue (inspire), green (encouragement), and black (leadership development) were important pieces to understanding SHIELD, and were also present in the original logo. Knowing this, we decided to keep the vision and program structure as the focal point of the new identity.