Baltimore Teacher Supply Swap

Logo and infographic design for a Baltimore-based nonprofit that offers school supplies to teachers. Developed with Xena Brar.

Background

Baltimore Teacher Supply Swap (BTSS) is a nonprofit that offers free school supplies to teachers in the Baltimore area.

In October 2019, BTSS temporarily closed while seeking more sustainable sources of funding. They approached MICA Design Storefront for assistance in creating fundraising infographics. I worked with Xena Brar to help create a compelling, fact-filled infographics to help convince donors to support BTSS.

I came into the project knowing very little about the world of education nonprofits. Our contact at BTSS, Alessa Giampaolo Keener, provided us with a wealth of facts and figures to sort through. We also looked at peers in the field and developed a competitive landscape analysis.

As we researched facts, Xena and I created a moodboard of inspiration and independently sketched out some ideas for layouts. I developed two drafts from this process — one with a illustrative school supply theme, one with a minimal path.

Final deliverables

Xena and I worked to refine the drafts. I primarily developed the “Supplies” graphic, while she worked on the “Schools” graphic — although we both edited. While I created the basic idea for the logo, Xena did the heavy lifting in cleaning it up and creating the lockups.

This was a project with a very quick turnaround period at the end of the semester. I’m really proud of the work everyone — from Xena and I, to Alessa, to our professor Brockett —did to make it all come together.

The collaborative process is something that I think is hard to come by as a design student! My great experience working as a team and for a local non-profit inspired me to take the Center for Social Design’s Practice-Based Studio in the spring 💖