Tyler Shaffer

FRINGE22 is a branding and creative strategy studio driven by social impact, with purpose at its core. I worked remotely on a contract between February and May, during the Studio Partner and Creative Director’s maternity leave. I designed web posts, an annual report, brand guidelines, and more for nonprofits, including Work for America, Riverview International Center, and Avanzamos Unidos.

After she fully returned, I accepted an extension from June to September, where I continued creating web posts and virtual event graphics for Work for America and a set of icons for Riverview International Center. I also developed brand guidelines for Ohio Business Energy Partnership, as well as logos, typography, and color palettes for Trust Neighborhoods.

Joining Race Forward's Narrative, Communications, and Storytelling team less than 8 weeks before Facing Race 2022, the nation's largest multiracial, intergenerational racial justice conference and amid a website redesign I quickly and efficiently better familiarized myself with and contributed to the organization's evolving visual brand by providing 140+ digital and print event materials, as well as feedback and 95+ solutions for raceforward.com's accessibility, photography, and motion graphics needs. Following the November 2022 event and June 2023 website launch, I dedicated my time to creating messaging guides and toolkits, event promotions, logos, social media assets, a program booklet and a 2024 donor art calendar for various departments and networks, including Federal Initiatives to Govern for Racial Equity (FIRE), Government Alliance on Race and Equity (GARE), Housing and Land Justice, and H.E.A.L. Together (Honest Education Action and Leadership).

I created typography, video graphics, event promotions, mobile ads, web banners, and more for Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, and occasionally Connect, WeightWatchers’ members-only digital community. Out of WW’s 2021 top 10 performing Instagram posts, I designed 9 and wrote half.

I joined WW's content and creative department, where I worked on Instagram posts and templates, analytics presentations, content strategy, seasonal color palettes, and promotional assets for partnerships, include Obé, Outdoor Afro, and Serta, and later CLMBR, Fiber One, and Partake, after accepting a permanent position on the team.

Starre Haas, BBA, MPS, is a women's rights advocate and leadership expert. It was a pleasure to convey her calm, confident, inspired, fresh, and personable energy through her professional stationery and online presence. While crafting her logo, I experimented with illusion design, incorporating distinct and subtle elements. I designed the resume, cover letter, photo treatment, and social media banner to complement her professional brand.

While managing Vote Run Lead's accounts, I used Google Workspace, Sprout Social and TweetDeck to write and schedule posts, review analytics, organize photography and design files, build media toolkits, cover live trainings, and organically grow the organization's social media following by 161% on Instagram, 45% on Twitter, and 12% on Facebook.

I developed the event branding, print materials, and digital content for major programs such as the organization's 20-city Run As You Are National Training, cohosted by WeWork and Facebook, and the Women & Power National Town Hall at SXSW in 2019. The same year I championed and helped successfully launch the organization's visual rebrand, as the project lead and main designer.

I designed fundraising presentations, social media posts, program documents, event slideshows, and e-blasts for the organization's participation at the 2018 United State of Women Summit and various political candidate trainings, before I was promoted to Lead Graphic Designer, and accepted the responsibilities of the Social Media Manager.

I supported the Lead Graphic Designer and Events and Operations Manager on a range of creative projects, from print materials like trainer and guest name tags, program books, merchandise, newsletters, worksheets, and signage, to digital assets like social media posts, event photography, email invitations, slide presentations, and website graphics.

Freedom a la Cart is a non-profit that offers catered box lunches in Columbus, OH—but their mission goes far beyond that. FALC employs survivors of human trafficking and supports their transition into a new life through freedom, stability, and self-empowerment. The organization was exclusively funded by donations and grants through the YMCA and the Columbus Community Shelter Board. FALC aimed to open its own cafe to expand operations and become financially self-sustaining, with the long-term goal of growing into a national franchise to spread its mission and maximize efforts.

After meeting with Paula Haines, FALC's Executive Director, a collaborator and I conducted research to develop materials for potential investors. I focused on creating the investor pitch book, using Freedom a la Cart's 2017 Business Plan. An interview with Carly Sparrow, Director of Operations at Alloy, was key to addressing the following challenges: brand recognition (Freedom vs. FALC), balancing facts with vision, conveying both action and emotion, using color for navigation, prioritizing operations over personnel, incorporating white space for notes and organizing lists and figures effectively.

I sharpened my Adobe Photoshop skills by fine-tuning The Red Thread Granny, a 30-page coloring book designed to be used as a training tool to prevent and identify sex trafficking of minors, my Illustrator skills by creating logo concepts for a program previously in development, Courage Coaching, and my InDesign skills by formatting educational packets, event flyers, and more.

I was assigned to promote a small business through an integrated marketing and promotional campaign. Upon contacting the founder and trained instructor of Karen's Dance & Fitness, she had expressed wanting to gain exposure for her studio. I treated this opportunity as a paid, freelance role and worked directly with her to brainstorm and evaluate the most effective methods to increase brand recognition and visibility, including web and social media assets, print ads, and merchandise. She encouraged complete creative control, resulting in an entire visual rebrand and change of name, Yara. It's an Arabic word meaning little butterfly, representing hope, transformation, life, strength and endurance, which are qualities Karen wanted her clients to embody and felt best represented her evolving brand.