As a designer for Department of Corrections, I've worked on so many different projects it is sometimes hard to show that vast range of work I do on a daily basis. One day I could be designing banners for our recruitment events that represent our Department values, some days it could be as simple as a design template in Word or PowerPoint staff can use to keep our branding consistent or it could be an internal banner for an intranet story.
I often go out and photograph our graduations for Corrections Officers, or it could be a day helping the detector dog team out with their promotional stuff. Each day is different and I've tried to show a range of the work we do as a design team. Below are a few examples of what we do and how it remains consistent to our core brand identity.
Corrections Brand Identity
Brief: Create a brand identity that encompasses all the work we do at Corrections, including links to helpful pages for staff and examples of brand work the design team creates for stakeholders on a regular basis. Ensure every aspect of the brand is covered. This is a guide for designers but also staff members and external agencies can use when creating work in the Department of Correction brand.
I have been designing material for the Corrections brand for a number of years. Designing the brand guidelines (and updating them regularly) is a huge task. I brainstormed with my team what we needed to include and how much detail was needed so that people inside and outside the organisation could get an idea of how everything should look to ensure our brand remained consistent. We added a huge amount of design examples to show how far the brand could be pushed internally and externally and went through the basics of logo usage, typography, brand colours, sub-branding and photography to name a few.
Corporate pull-up banners
Brief: Create brightly coloured banners in our corporate branding that represent the Department values. No imagery is to be used for these banners as it can date them quickly (due to staff turnover, changes in uniform, etc).
My deadline to create these banners was really tight - they needed to be printed that day as we were updating some older banners that included imagery that had gone out of date. These banners were to be placed at events, which could be anything from a recruitment event to an A&P show down South. The main focal point was to be our values, but also highlight these were Corrections branded. I ensured the logo was at the top so it could always be seen, the value statements were bold and bright and had icons to draw attention since imagery couldn't be used. They represented our current branding and linked back to our social media pages and website if people wanted to find out more. I ensured these banners were bright and would stand out so they would be seen in all environments, but still kept true to our brand identity.
Women's Network pins
Brief: Create a design that represents the Department's "Women's Network" using our brand colours with the official "International Women's Day" purple. These badges are to include two Mа̄ori proverbs.
I really enjoyed this project as it was nice to have a bit of creative freedom and have a chance to illustrate something. By keeping the illustrations simple but bright and incorporating the quotes and colour schemes, we managed to create something the network loved. These badges now represent the brand of the Women's Network within Corrections and have since been printed on tote bags.
Veteran's Network pins
Brief: The Veteran's Network within Corrections wanted a badge to represent themselves as a group. Badges are great as they are able to be worn by Frontline staff and enables them to feel like they are part of something and also represents the time they served. The design had to be similar in size to the "Women's Network" but also represent all Veteran fields, e.g. the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines.
This was a hard design to create since it was going to be so small but include a lot of detail in the illustrations. At first, I created something really detailed but had to pull back on the design so it would be easily visible at a badge size. We decided on this badge after a range of iterations and created a black and white one too. This was so staff had a choice on which one they'd prefer to wear, similar to the Women's Network badges.
Internal story banners
Above are examples of "quick" turnaround banners that were created for internal messaging to go on our intranet. On any giving day, my team will create a banner that represents a story with the hope that our staff will click through to find out more. These stories can be about a range of different things so we've got to be creative on how the stories presented so important information reaches staff across the business. Above are a few examples with themes of IT, news, health and safety, COVID-19, Mother's day, Shake Out, form transfer, Christmas and office relocation.
Example of internal intranet page.
Kia Kaha - Te Reo Cards (internal)
Brief: Create a set of cards for staff to have on their work ID cards (connected by a key ring) or in meeting rooms so that people are able to attempt basic te reo Māori and to help them become more confident when saying their pepeha, prayers and waiata. These cards are to be consistent with our corporate branding and long wearing with accessiblity to our Tihi-o-Manо̄no application.
I designed these cards to be consistent with the corporate office branding by incorporating our glazing designs into the cards so they tied in nicely when being left in meeting rooms. We went through a process with key stakeholders to ensure the copy was correct and easy to follow for those with little re reo knowledge. The cards are business card size, printed on never-tear, matte laminate stock so they last a long time since people will be carrying them around on their lanyards, in handbags, etc. Feedback from these cards has been great and more people are trying out their te reo Māori skills with more confidence due to the simplicity of the content. They also link to our app, which has further prompts in learning the language accessed by QR code (since we are so familiar with this concept due to COVID-19).