American Student Assistance
American Student Assistance (ASA) is a national nonprofit dedicated to ensuring equitable access to career readiness resources for middle and high school students. Through free digital platforms, advocacy, and immersive learning experiences, ASA empowers young people to explore their strengths, build critical skills, and confidently navigate their futures.
I led a team of three art directors and three copywriters to unify ASA’s corporate identity and launch two new student-facing products, NextVoice and EvolveMe, while enhancing the existing Futurescape platform. My work spanned:
Corporate Brand Strategy: Developed and enforced brand guidelines to ensure consistency across all touchpoints—annual reports, email campaigns, presentation decks, web assets, video content, and high-profile conferences like ASU+GSV and SXSW EDU, where ASA was a lead sponsor.
Experiential Design Leadership: Conceptualized visual direction for in-person events, including signage, interactive installations, and promotional materials. Captured content onsite and produced recap videos to showcase ASA’s impact internally and externally.
Digital Product Branding & Campaigns:
Futurescape (Existing): Enhanced the immersive career-exploration platform’s visual assets and social strategy, aligning it with ASA’s evolving mission.
NextVoice & EvolveMe (Launched): Developed full brand systems and spearheaded go-to-market campaigns.
Integrated Marketing:
Paid Media: Directed cross-platform campaigns featuring motion graphics, scripted UGC (sourced and art-directed with content creators), and performance-driven ad concepts. Analyzed metrics to refine strategies in real time.
Organic Social: Built a scalable content engine through weekly TikTok trend-brainstorm sessions, monthly calendars, and templated designs. Focused on authentic Gen Z engagement, tying trends to product missions (e.g., EvolveMe’s skill-building rewards).
Leadership Impact: Elevated ASA’s brand authority in the education space, drove product adoption through cohesive storytelling, and fostered a culture of data-informed creativity within my team.
BRAND STRATEGIST, CREATIVE DIRECTION, VISUAL IDENTITY, MOTION DESIGN, SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGIST, BRAND GUIDELINES, CROSS-FUNCTIONAL PARTNERSHIP, TEAM TRAINING & IMPLEMENTATION, PRESENTATION DESIGNER, MARKETING CREATIVE LEAD
WHERE IT WAS FEATURED:
American Student Assistance social channels, website, and virtual communications, ASU+GSV, SXSW EDU
Corporate Brand Systems
When I joined ASA, the organization’s branding faced a critical disconnect. While a third-party agency had recently redesigned the website (adhering to ASA’s existing color and font guidelines), the lack of creative oversight during that process resulted in a polished digital presence that clashed starkly with outdated B2B collateral like annual reports, emails, and board decks. Legacy brand guidelines, no longer reflected ASA’s evolving mission or the sophistication of the new website. To bridge this gap, I championed an updated brand system that harmonized the fresh web aesthetics with ASA’s heritage. Leading a copywriter and art director, we expanded the guidelines to unify typography, imagery, and layout principles across all touchpoints. The result was a cohesive brand experience, ensuring stakeholders encountered the same clarity and professionalism whether engaging with the website, annual report, or a conference booth.
Experiential Design & Event Storytelling
ASA’s role as a leader in education innovation demanded a bold presence at high-profile conferences like SXSW EDU and ASU+GSV, where audiences ranged from district administrators to philanthropists. My team reimagined these events as immersive storytelling opportunities, blending ASA’s mission with interactive design.
For example, as a lead sponsor of ASU+GSV in 2024, ASA’s presence needed to reflect its role as a collaborative thought leader in education—not just another exhibitor. To achieve this, I developed a co-branded design package that seamlessly merged ASU+GSV’s branding with ASA’s updated brand guidelines. The goal was to ensure ASA remained instantly recognizable while aligning with the conference’s visual identity, creating an elevated, professional look that underscored our partnership.
The creative direction spanned every touchpoint: a keynote video during the welcoming address to conference goers, app splash screen introducing ASA, window clings lining the conference center’s glass walls, looping motion graphics on hallway screens, co-branded presenter decks for ASA speakers, and even custom coasters at networking lounges. Large-scale signage positioned ASA as a hub for innovation, while subtle details like our ‘Future Ready Fusion’ signature cocktail signage reinforcing our brand’s partnership with ASU+GSV.
On the ground, I led both design execution and content capture. During the day, I documented panel discussions, stakeholder meetings, and attendee interactions. Each night, I edited footage into polished daily recap videos (delivered by 7 AM the following morning) to amplify momentum on social media. Post-event, I synthesized hundreds of clips into a comprehensive recap video, weaving in metrics like attendee reach and partner testimonials to quantify ASA’s impact. This final piece became a cornerstone of post-conference donor reports, showcasing ASA’s leadership in actionable terms.
Corporate B2B Assets
Write something about sales team stuff
Student Product Ecosystem: Branding & Launches
ASA’s digital platforms empower middle and high school students to explore careers, advocate for change, and build skills for the future. While Futurescape (a legacy career-discovery tool) was refined during my tenure, my primary focus was launching two new products: NextVoice, a social advocacy toolkit, and EvolveMe, a rewards-driven skill-building platform.
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Futurescape
An immersive digital platform offering a journey that helps kids realize their passions and find careers that match who they are and what they love. It starts with a quick, 11 question personality quiz. After taking the quiz, students can see their personality type, and explore a galaxy of potential career paths.
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NextVoice
Designed to help kids learn to self-advocate through the lens of social issues they care about. With it, they can learn more about social causes they’re interested in, develop skills that can help them make their voice heard, and use free templates and tools to take action and make change.
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EvolveMe
Motivates kids to learn new skills and prepare for their future by rewarding them for the steps they take. Once signed up, users can complete skill-building tasks. After they complete a task, they earn points which can be redeemed for gift cards and entries into weekly cash giveaways.
NextVoice Brand Guidelines
NextVoice began as a barebones web prototype. To transform it into a youth-driven movement, I built a bold visual identity merging protest-inspired graphics (stencil typography, gritty textures) with ASA’s equity-focused mission. The guidelines included:
A vibrant, high-contrast color palette (electric purple, protest-sign yellow).
UGC-first social templates (e.g., “Create Your Poster” Instagram Stories).
A “call-to-action” tone balancing urgency with optimism (“Your voice isn’t loud enough? We’ll help you turn it up”).
NextVoice Social Launch Strategy or Paid Social
To avoid “corporate activism” pitfalls, we partnered with Gen Z creators to film raw, comment-style videos mimicking DMs from friends. Ads focused on real student stories (e.g., “How I Used NextVoice to Save Our School’s Art Program”), blending platform-specific trends with actionable tools.
EvolveMe Brand Guidelines
EvolveMe required a playful, reward-driven aesthetic to motivate teens. I defined its identity through:
A neon-bright color palette and pixel-art motifs (nodding to gaming culture).
A cheeky brand voice (“Earn points, level up, get paid—homework has never been this lit”).
Flexible illustration styles for tasks (e.g., a “skill tree” showing progress).
EvolveMe Go-to-Market Campaign or Paid Social
We hijacked TikTok trends like “Get Ready With Me” to showcase students completing EvolveMe tasks (e.g., filming a “morning routine” while cashing in points for gift cards). Paid ads mixed student testimonials with snappy motion graphics, while organic posts leveraged memes (e.g., “When your EvolveMe rewards hit vs. your allowance”).
ORGANIC SOCIAL
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ORGANIC SOCIAL ✦
Organic Social
Talk about developing an organic social strat with pillars, maybe show a deck?
facilitating weekly TikTok brainstorms, helping the team identify trends and find ways for EvolveMe to engage.
Call out your role in monthly concept pitches, where you presented full marketing calendars.
Highlight how you developed scalable, templated content ideas, reducing the need for completely new concepts every month.
If you made it this far, thank you :)