Peralta Community College District
Overview
How might we develop an updated brand for the Peralta Community College District that represents each College, breathe new life into its reputation, and help restore unity within the District?
Position
Graphic Design Specialist
Duration
2 Years (Updated Oct 2022)
Impact
To strengthen brand identity, increase credibility and build trust within the community.
The Peralta Community College District (PCCD or the Peralta Colleges), founded in 1964, is a community comprised of 4 Colleges (5 Campuses). Berkeley City College, College of Alameda, Laney College, Merritt College, and the District Administration Offices are located in Berkeley, Alameda, and Oakland, respectively.
As the sole designer for the District, I had to reinforce the District's brand with a refreshed look for external audiences that fairly represent the four colleges.
Disclaimer: As a current Peralta employee, this page is subject to change.
Brand Development
The direction for this brand highlights the District as a Service Center to the 4 Colleges who act as patrons for our services.
The new branding of this College District aims to be an anchor to the colleges and remain consistent. In the past, many branding issues were happening as departments were siloed and didn't have a single mouthpiece that reflected the district. This brand guideline is a remedy for the issue and acts as a base identity, while the colleges have their own.
Visual explains color distribution and priority.
Click to view the most current guideline.
Color Usage
The new brand relies on a combination of colors, and they are to be used as equally as possible in any application. Apart from the two primary colors, each secondary color symbolizes a college seen from the perspective of the District. Any collateral we create comes from the District; therefore, the colors cannot be the same as the colleges. The image here shows the official colors, specifications, and proportions. Although these colors represent the colleges, they must also be distinct enough for us to use them in our collateral functionally.
Email Signature
Beyond advertisements and logos, branding extends to various applications, including emails, crucial in the digital era. To enhance our brand consistency, we developed a universal email template for all district employees. By incorporating the new logo and minimal styling, we transformed generic email signatures into a more curated and professional appearance.
Website Redesign
In 2020, our team began building out a new website for the District from the ground up. It is common for a large entity to update its website every 5-6 years. In Peralta's case, the last major website redesign wasn't since 2011. So it goes to show that a website redesign was highly warranted, with good reason.
Areas of Improvement: Old site
Not ADA compliant. Difficult to navigate for those visually impaired.
Not Mobile Optimized. Users cannot access the site efficiently on a smartphone.
No Boundaries. Student and employee resources and materials share the same space on a webpage.
Poor Navigation. Each Subpage had an individual menu and lacked organization and overall clarity.
Poor Brand Identity. The District wants to show inclusivity and equal representation of the four colleges in the District. The old site was a default WordPress website that lacked customization.
With these areas of improvement, we began conceptualizing a new look.
Old District Website 2011-2022
Here is a early mock-up for both desktop AND mobile views. We conveyed our idea to the Board of Trustees with this proof of concept before receiving the green light to move forward.
Early Concept
Website Audit -
We audited various community college districts, including the California Community Colleges website, to identify trends and assess strengths and weaknesses. We aimed to avoid clutter, distractions, and similarity to the previous webpage in our redesign.
Mock-Up -
I designed template pages in Adobe XD, aligning the menu to the right based on our previous design. We emphasized brand identity with color and typeface. After receiving feedback from the board and the community, we adjusted the concept. The board approved the design, and we started building the pages on HubSpot.
Mock Up from July 2021
Hubspot & Marketing Migrations -
We transitioned from WordPress to HubSpot for our website, seeking a simpler platform for collaborative work. Learning HubSpot was manageable, and our team swiftly developed pages. However, migrating content posed a challenge, leading us to enlist "Marketing Migrations" to transfer 70% from the old WordPress site to the new HubSpot one. Our team optimized the remaining content. After 18 months of work, we opened the new website for exploration in December 2021, gathering feedback for improvements. Originally planned for January 2022, the website's live launch was delayed to mid-February to address potential issues.
A banner from our old site would inform visitors of the upcoming new website and how they can help us with the transition by providing feedback on the new site.
On February 21st, 2022, the new website was officially launched at www.peralta.edu, replacing the old URL web.peralta.edu. While the senior site will remain online temporarily, it will be inactive and unsupported. Any missing information may be retrieved temporarily, but the transition marks the end of its active use.
Edited: By December 2023, the old website will be officially disconnected.
Class Schedules
I oversee a significant biannual project managing class schedule booklets for all four colleges within the Peralta Colleges. These booklets serve as an introduction to the colleges for prospective students to understand the services offered in tandem with the actual courses. Given the proximity of the colleges, 40% of Peralta students attend more than one campus. The colleges, despite their distinct locations, function as a closely-knit family. When designing the booklet covers, we emphasize this familial connection. We develop a theme or motif each semester, presenting concepts to college heads for feedback and improvements. For a detailed look at schedules, visit the Peralta Website.
Advertisement Applications
To kick off our return-to-campus initiatives for the Spring 2022 Semester, we devised a campaign that invites students back to school during our hiatus with the COVID-19 Pandemic in effect.
Social Media Ads
Working with our vendor, 25th Hour Communications, we were able to kick off our Back to YOUR Future campaign on all social media. Here are some mocks for Facebook.
Online Ads
Standard sizes
300 x 600
160 x 600
970 x 90
728 x 90
320 x 50
300 x 50
300 x 250
Bus Advertisements
AC Transit
We've designed our ads in Spanish and English with the possibility of expanding to other languages that match our demographic in a future campaign.
CCPRO Awards
The Community College Public Relations Organization (CCPRO) California organization serves community colleges through public and governmental relations, marketing, and design professionals statewide. The organization holds an annual conference that provides marketing and public relations professionals with a unique opportunity to network with peers, share best practices and challenges, and garner work and career advice. The biggest highlight is the awards that all 146 community colleges in California compete for on the last night of the conference; the awards are issued. The following is a summary of recent awards received since I have joined the Peralta Community College District.
2021 AWARDS
Silver - “Before & after Category” for the FY 2020-21 Annual Adopted Budget, aka "the Budget Book," compared to the FY 2019-20 edition
Bronze - "Online Newsletter" category for Peralta Gems
2023 AWARDS
Gold - “Media Success Story” - SPRING IS FREE in 2023. The Press Release garnered attention across the Bay Area and was featured on traditional new channels and online media.
Silver - “Before & After Category” for the District’s Website redesign.
Bronze - “College Schedule Category” - for all four Spring 2023 Semester Schedules published in Nov. 2022, emphasizing ‘Spring is free” and maintaining a family resemblance.
Merritt College’s New Mascot
Workspace when creating color variants
If you were to ask folks from the area, "What is the Merritt College Mascot?" you would get several wrong answers, with few landing on the correct one. Before Fall 2022 and since the school was established, Students at Merritt College were known as Thunderbirds. Are you surprised? For many in this community, that bit a trivia was news for them. Many assumed the mascot for Merritt College was the Black Panthers because engaged students helped establish the Black Panthers Political Party within the halls of Merritt College in the 1960s.
Merrit College had been dealing with an identity crisis for decades. Even US Representative Barbara Lee narrated a Documentary on the founding of the Black Panther Party, courtesy of Peralta's Television Network.
Now that the COVID-19 pandemic approaches its end and people are returning to campus, we wanted to take some steps to help rejuvenate some positive and inspiring energy in the college.
Sept 2022, President David Johnson, Myself, and the leaders of the Merritt College Student Senate sought a solution to this dilemma. Initially, I began drafting new imagery to liven up the current mascot since the Thunderbirds had an old look. But that soon shifted when the President saw a graphic I made incorporating the Panther and Thunderbird together. Then during a board meeting, the President wanted to check the pulse of his colleagues and see what they thought about this graphic at an impulse. People were impressed by the illustration, despite its low fidelity. The overwhelming positivity was a green light to proceed with this creative design and pitch it to the student government.
I made several logos and swapped colors, which went in tandem with the first-ever brand guideline I made for the school. So the students were getting a new logo with new colors. Upon showing them, the "Yays" had it. And in one swift motion, the Thunderbird was retired, and Merritt College was home to the Panthers at last.
