American Camp Association -- Jr Graphic Designer

The American Camp Association is an organization dating back over 100 years and is a leading authority in youth development. During my time as Jr Graphic Designer at the ACA I developed marketing collateral, advertisements, branding, and various publications in both print and online mediums for diverse audiences of up to 10,000 members, businesses, camps, and individuals. This was my first job out of college and proved to be a great learning experience that gave me a lot of insight into how a communications team works, and how design can both impact business as well as a greater good. Here is some of my work from this time:

Explore30 is a youth reading program that was designed to engage children with 30 minutes of active reading during every day they are at camp. With this branding project I was challenged to design a brand that would speak to children, parents, and camp leaders. Our goal was for it to be both playful and fun but at the same time be taken seriously. The result was a logo that juxtaposed bright colors and interacting typography and photography with a cleaner modern type treatment that would appeal to our target audiences. This program was quickly implemented in many camps after release.

The Back to our Roots conference was held by the Southeastern Division of the ACA in 2010. The idea was to bring the camping industry together to celebrate it's humble beginnings, it's down-to-earth beliefs, and it's noble cause; to let kids of all ages experience what it means to get 'back to our roots'. With this in mind, I set out designing the conference experience with the goal of developing imagery that was simple in it's execution, yet powerful in its meaning.

During my time at the ACA I had the privilege of designing both the 2009 and 2010 ACA Holiday Cards. The ACA is an organization that advocates a love for nature and embodies the camping spirit. We wanted a card that would represent the ACA and summarize the emotion of the holiday season in the simplest way possible. When I was determining the artistic direction of these cards, I knew the imagery had to be the main focus. I pulled colors from our brand that fit the season and silhouetted against it scenes from our idealized winter hiking destinations. 

The Healthy Camp Study: Impact Report was the summarizing report of a study that was conducted over five-years by leading experts in camp safety and risk management. I was tasked with the designing and laying out the content in a way that communicated the studies findings in a clear and logical way. This was one of many editorial projects that tested my ability to flow large blocks of text while implementing supporting graphics to help the readers follow and better understand the information presented.

The 2010 Camp 2 Grow Impact Report was one editorial publication I designed for the ACA that required as much visual information as it did text. This publication had an emphasis on the growth and accomplishments that children can have in a camp that doubles as a learning environment. To convey this in a more meaningful and impactful way, I balanced text with actual camp photos, camper and parent quotes, and backgrounds of natural scenes of growth. 

Every year the ACA hosts a highly regarded national conference that draws over 100 exhibitors and thousands of attendees. One of the major roles of the communications team is to develop event branding, promotional materials, programs, and all marketing materials that are required to ensure the event is a success. While the event was a team-effort, I was in charge of creating many of the print materials for the conference including the Conference Resource Flyer shown above. The finished piece was folded  in the middle and tabbed together before being direct-shipped to the attendees before the event.