Gear Up South Bend!
Summary
Growing Up with Gear Up!
Design
Category:
Design
Date:May 30, 2025
Stats
Program booklets distributed across middle schools:
Character designs used in over a dozen campaign materials, including event banners, tote bags, and stickers:
A bold brand activation featuring original character design, brand assets, and print/digital materials that grow with students.
Client
Gear Up South Bend!
Project Date
2024
Roles
Branding, Character Design, Print Design, Social Media Design
Industry
Education
Innovations
Age-progressive avatars, interactive print collateral, integrated social presence.
Opportunity
As GEAR UP launched a seven-year grant program in South Bend schools, the initiative needed a strong visual identity and student-facing materials that could grow with its audience. The challenge: build brand trust with parents while sparking long-term engagement among students as young as 12.
Solution
Through close collaboration with stakeholders, we developed a new brand identity anchored by six custom characters representing career paths: Tech, Arts, Healthcare, Trade, Hospitality, and Numbers. Each character was illustrated across six age groups (12–17), allowing students to ‘grow up’ alongside them. We redesigned the core program booklet, created a collectible sticker book, and launched social content and giveaways—all designed to foster excitement, trust, and connection.
Creating the characters was one of the most rewarding aspects of this project. Our team collaborated directly with GEAR UP South Bend! leaders to define unique personalities and career paths for each character. From cybersecurity and welding to art therapy and biostatistics, we brought each career path to life visually, making future possibilities tangible for students just beginning to think about their futures. The evolving character age designs gave us a unique way to connect with students over time and give the program a lasting presence in their educational journey.
To ensure the Gear Up South Bend! team could continue engaging students long after the initial launch, we created a fully customized Canva library of branded assets. This included character graphics, backgrounds, editable templates, and social media content. The library gave school staff and program leaders the tools to maintain brand consistency while easily creating new materials for events, announcements, and outreach—no design software or expertise required.
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