For many years, the Charles Butt Foundation was a behind-the-scenes grant making nonprofit. Then, the Raise Your Hand Texas Foundation merged with and became the Charles Butt Foundation, unifying programs, grant making, research, and marketing communications all under one umbrella.
Color Palette
We considered several possible options for how to choose a color palette. With Charles’ favorite blue color already selected as the leading primary color, we ultimately leaned into Charles’ love for sailing and his sailboats for additional inspiration to round out the primary, secondary, and neutral color palettes. All of the primary and secondary colors were named after sailing/nautical themes. We also outlined how shades could also further extend the palette for maximum flexibility while maintaining brand integrity.
Logos
After considering a number of different possible directions for the Charles Butt Foundation logo, an obvious choice emerged. Charles’ signature serves as a kind of Good Housekeeping seal of approval on H-E-B product packaging, reflecting his personal commitment to quality. We determined there was no stronger visual or symbol of Charles’ values to represent his named foundation than his own signature. We created multiple versions and permutations, from a standard and stacked version of the primary logo to reverse out options to a smaller bug with Charles’ initials for digital spaces requiring something more compact.
Typography
With the color palette in place and logo variations finalized, we moved on to identifying primary and secondary fonts that were clean, crisp, versatile, and harmonious within the new brand identity. We settled on Lora and Work Sans.
Design System & Collateral
With the basic brand identity building blocks in place, we set about bringing the look and feel together through a new UI/UX design system, new organizational collateral materials, and digital promotion templates.
Wireframes & Websites
Brand Strategy: Petri Darby
Brand Identity Design: Joel Goudeau, Chela Giraldo
Website Design & Development: Karen Wang, Joel Goudeau, Chela Giraldo