Open Hearts' Competition

Here's a few places that are OHAC's competition:

http://passionworks.org/

http://www.creativityexplored.org/

http://www.shortbusart.com/

Logo Sketches

Old Design

Here's what the Open Hearts Art Center's website USED to look like:

http://inherent.startlogic.com/Open%20Hearts%20AC/

"Swipe File"

This is my "swiped"logo from Print Magazine.

I love the double message here. Also, it's just very simple and elegant.

I love the playful quality mixed with hidden references and hand generated type.

I really like the playful quality of the type.. and the little bee is pretty adorable. =]

Who doesn't love a logo that's a visual pun? =D

Again, playful and organic.

Cute, playful, organic, hand drawn, colorful, light.

Puppy logo. Nuff said.

Design Brief

Company Profile
Open Hearts Art Center is a non-profit art education program located in the rich artistic city of Asheville, North Carolina. Open Hearts Art Center is dedicated to serving young and old community members who are living with a variety of challenges, which include but are not limited to: developmental, physical, and emotional disabilities. These individuals are able to reach their full potential through creative expression in many forms, including music, drama, dance, creative writing, painting, ceramics, and animal therapy.

Open Hearts Art Center was founded by Debbie Dearborn, an Appalachian State University BFA alumnus, who was inspired to create an art education program for individuals with disabilities after watching her uncle suffer from Schizophrenia. She committed herself to creating a program where individuals with disabilities can dream, create, be expressive and have a life worth living.

Project Goals
i want to create a unified identity package that Open Hearts Art Center can use to promote themselves, gain support, volunteers, students, and donors. They have literally zero budget and work with a very small staff, so their need for good design is imperative. The website will be the most important part of their package: all traffic is directed to the website, and is their primary source of information for volunteers, students, staff, and donors, so I want to create a website that fulfills all of their needs while also being playful, creative, and accessible.

Target Audience
Open Hearts Art Center's target audience is community members, donors, volunteers, and prospective students. In short, anyone and everyone who wants to get involved in and support their cause. I want to help Open Hearts Art Center reach out to the community, gain support, and show prospective students and their families what they're all about. I want to create a package that is open, accessible, artistic, friendly, creative and can help give Open Hearts Art Center the professionalism and uniqueness to stand out and have their voices heard.

Budget and Schedule
Like many non-profits, Open Hearts Art Center operates solely on volunteers and donations, making their budget virtually zero. Color will have to be used sparingly, and two color jobs might be best. They also have a very small staff, so I want to try to create things that they could easily reproduce themselves, without looking cheap and tacky.