Niall O'Kelly

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Acumen Fund is a non-profit with a difference. Their approach to alleviating world poverty issues is to create and invest in small to medium size local businesses who work within specific areas of aid, adding both knowledge and capital to ensure their success and sustainability. The four areas of concentration are water, health, housing and energy. By investing and building scalable businesses they are making a very visible difference in the lives of millions of people in East Africa, India and Pakistan.

Following on from their brochure and collateral system which I had created concurrently, I designed this brand standards (while working with MSDS) to help ensure that the newly extended brand would be faithfully implemented around the world. The brand was designed to stand out from the usual non-profit styles, utilising eye-catching colours and a bold graphic style to draw the viewer in and underscore Acumen Fund’s message.

The guidelines were designed to comprehensively show all aspects of the Acumen Fund communications system and how it all ties together. Each section focussed on a particular aspect of the brand, moving from brand voice and tone to the signature and its implementation, to then outlining all collateral and screen usages. Having all such information in one document provided designers and the Acumen Fund community with a single resource to help guide every decision when creating new branded pieces.

The typography and design was styled to ensure the message was allowed to easily shine through, the various weights and styles of Avenir Next working well to carry the viewers eye around each spread and ensure no important information was missed. Every spread worked visually as well, as many users might not speak English as a first language, so it was important that the information could be easily understood without needed the copy to explain it. Contemporary touches were mixed with a classic grid and layout to capture the essence of this organisation—a venture capital fund with a hugely important and successful philanthropic mission.

Skills

IT Adobe Creative Suite Microsoft (Word, Excel, Powerpoint)	Crafts/Manual Typography Color Theory Print Production Photography (Photo-Direction) Psychology and Strategy Photography Coding / Site Development
Languages English German Irish	Other Sustainable design Brand Development Project Management Strategy Copy-Writing and Editing