GRAPHIC DESIGN
Sleep Number CSR Branding
Because we were working on a corporate outreach program aimed at improving the sleep health of school-aged children, the logo for Sleep Number's social responsibility program was kept clean and simple, incorporating our brand logo. I paid attention to balancing sizes and weights for hierarchy and legibility,
When developing the palette, I started with our core corporate colors and expanded from there. It is designed to be bright and youthful, but not too juvenile. Branded blues pair with poppy
shades of green to help convey the wellness component
of the program. Two modern grays are included to help ground the palette.
The typography system of the CSR program is meant to be very clean, with type weights balancing to pair with the frequent use of icon-based illustrations. To allude to the school-aged demographic of the target audience, I incorporated the concept of writing materials in several ways in the graphic treatments. One of these forms was incorporated into the typography: a "highlighter" graphic device was used to grab attention to key parts of quotes, or add hierarchy within titles.
Logo, Color, and Typography
STYLE GUIDE
The CSR team takes a lot of photos at events and leverage a lot of stock photography. All of this leads to a lot of variance in lighting and photography quality, which posed an interesting creative challenge when developing the brand. As a solution, I developed a post-processing method that resulted in black and white photography that had a consistent overall feel, regardless of the original state of the image. This also created a unique opportunity to bring a more branded feel to the imagery with the inclusion of pops of colors from the design system, which were used strategically to flow the eye around the designs across channels.
Sleep Number leveraged a lot of icons in their messaging at the core brand level, so when it came time to develop a system for this program, I started with the established modern line illustration approach and evolved it further to feel unique to the CSR brand but still clearly linked to our corporate aesthetic. Using a "drawn on" writing implements approach to the line art, stroke edges were roughened to nod to a pencil drawing and color floods were slightly offset to feel imperfectly colored in.
Photo & Illustration Styles
STYLE GUIDE
This video was created to be in the rotation among other product and corporate messaging spots featured on screen displays in Sleep Number stores. Type was designed to be larger scale for legibility across the retail space. The graphic concept of writing implements continued to thread through this piece in motion graphics form, with transitions, illustrations, and in-photography color blocking animating on in a "drawn in" style.
In-Store Experience Informational Spot
VIDEO
To publicize the launch of the CSR program, the PR team requested an infographic to accompany their pitches. The infographic featured data from a sleep study conducted by Sleep Number in anticipation of the program launch.
Teen Sleep Study Infographic
PR & COMMS
Lead Designer: Maddy Hague
Creative Director: Rich Schindeldecker
Copy: Jen Larson
Animator: Sam Mattson
PROJECT CREDITS
In 2019, Sleep Number pulled all of its corporate social responsibility programs under one initiative: Sleep Smarter. Perform Better. I was asked to brand the new initiative, as well as create print and digital collateral for our Communications team, Social team, and In-Store team.
Because the focus of the program was improving the quality of sleep for primary school aged kids with a particular focus on tweens and teens, I designed a system that reflected that age group and leaned into the educational nature of the program while still feeling modern, clean, and slightly more mature. Details inspired by writing implements were built into the style guide to give the concept life, from incorporating a highlighted type treatment to adding texture to pencil-inspired line illustrations paired with offset color fills for a hand drawn, hand colored look.
The poppy but sophisticated color palette was kept in the cool tones to incorporate both our overarching Sleep Number brand, but also as a nod health and wellness. The design system and photography was meant to stay bright an airy not only to give space for the color palette but to also portray a sense of optimism and happiness that comes from better sleep.
One of our main challenges was knowing that we would be working with a lot of stock and on-site event photography with various styles and lighting conditions. To compensate from this, I developed an editing style that focused on a rich and airy black and white look to make everything feel more cohesive. It also gave the opportunity for us to pop colors off of the black and white to make it feel more modern and ownable.
To raise awareness for our CSR efforts, the Social Marketing Team requested two educational videos that featured quick tips and key facts around the importance of quality sleep during the teen years. Like the in-store video, the writing implement motion graphics device was threaded through in transitions, illustrations, and photos.
Upper Funnel Informational Ads
SOCIAL