CREATIVE SERVICES: CHOICES

In addition to our handmade home décor collections, ARCHd also offers creative services. Specifically – graphic design, illustration, photography and video services to other organizations and companies, both large and small. We recently had the honor of working with CHOICES – a local Memphis reproductive health organization – on several creative projects. CHOICES provides patient-centered medical care at their clinic and champions sexual and reproductive rights. Working with an organization that so closely shares our values brings even more meaning and purpose to our work and process.

Below is a closer look at our recent experience capturing photography and creating new designs for CHOICES.

COMMERCIAL PHOTOGRAPHY

Quality photography that illustrates your organization’s mission and tells the story of what you offer your customers/clients SHOULD NOT be underestimated. Through photos, your target audience should be able to see themselves as your customers and visualize what it would be like to experience your company.

For CHOICES, our main goals during our stock photography photoshoot were to capture the provider/patient relationship during different types of care, the state-of-the-art clinic where patients receive care and the midwifery experience. We wanted to provide them with a diverse bank of photos to help keep their messaging clear and on brand. The photos would be for a wide variety of uses – social media, email newsletters, annual reports, etc.

CHOICES was also in need of updated headshot photography for their staff. We set up our portable backdrop system (with multiple backdrop options to complement their brand) onsite in one of their open meeting rooms for a full day. Around 40 staff members stopped by during pre-scheduled time slots throughout the day. It was fun to meet so many members of their staff and learn more about their roles at CHOICES.

ANNUAL REPORT DESIGN

In my experience of designing numerous annual reports for various nonprofits over the years, the number one issue I continuously run into is the lack of high quality, high resolution photography. While annual reports always include an organization’s important key financials, it should also aim to visually tell their story from that specific year. And while infographics are wonderful at displaying the numbers, great photography is vital to visually telling those stories. Having the opportunity to capture that stock photography for CHOICES prior to designing their annual report made the design process so much smoother. It provided me with a full bank of high quality images to incorporate throughout my design.

Our high resolution photography paired with CHOICES’ brand elements really allowed me to bring their brand to life.

EMAIL DESIGN

There are so many great email platforms to choose from, full of customizable templates and special features to help companies execute their marketing strategies. But sometimes, it can be hard to navigate those pre-made templates and create email designs best-suited for your company’s specific communication goals. When helping clients with their email design, my main goal is to create templates that are easy for their staff to edit and execute. And I’m always of the mind that the more you can build WITHIN the email platform, the better (as opposed to creating intricate design templates in Adobe software that leads to image-only emails). While image-only emails are great for some companies, most nonprofits don’t have the staff bandwidth to edit and design those type of emails. By building the majority of an email’s features WITHIN the email platform, it makes the email templates more accessible to a wider range of staff members (and therefore, easier to edit and send out).

For this CHOICES email design project, I designed and built multiple email templates within their email client. Though each different template was created for a specific use – newsletter, event announcement, letter from the Executive Director, etc. – they all share an overall look to keep the brand cohesive. Once the designs were finalized, I held a short training session over ZOOM with a few CHOICES staff members to walk through how to properly use and edit the templates.

We absolutely loved working with CHOICES on this project and it looks like they loved working with us, too ;) 

CLIENT TESTIMONIALS

COMMERCIAL PHOTOGRAPHY:

“They are so beautiful! I can't even tell you how excited I am to use these photos everywhere.”
– Madison

ANNUAL REPORT DESIGN:

“This looks SO GOOD. I really love the small design details. I could gush for a very long time about all the things I noticed that made me say "Oh I love that," but it's late on a Friday, so I'll get to the point :)”
– Holly

EMAIL DESIGN:

“I’m so impressed. This is very much what we wanted to see visually.”
– Holly

CHOICES recently announced that they will be opening a new clinic in Carbondale, Illinois, to allow them to continue to provide essential abortion care for the people in our communities. CLICK HERE to learn more about the new facility and to donate directly.

HIRE US

Have an upcoming design, photography or video project? CONTACT US to see how ARCHd can communicate your story and help bring your vision to life.