Half-Cent Referendum
Branding, UX, & Marketing

Process & Approach

Leading the team

I owned every creative decision on the campaign and was responsible for how it all came out. I set the visual and verbal system, defined how it would work in every medium, and directed the team that produced it. The goal was that a billboard glimpsed at 60 mph and a 15-second video would read as unmistakably the same campaign. My department director helped when needed, but she left the creative direction for me to manage.

I directed a four-person team: two graphic designers, a videographer, and a digital marketing specialist. I set the style, art-directed their work, and reviewed everything to keep it consistent across a fast-moving, ten-month campaign. Development sat in a separate department, so I worked side by side with their project manager every day to get the design built the way it was meant to be.

I was also hands-on with the message. I helped write the copy and shape the marketing and messaging strategy, working with stakeholders on the hard question underneath the design: how do you sell a tax increase to voters primed to reject one?

An identity built to stand out

The PAC's original logo couldn't carry an emotional argument, so I rebuilt the identity from scratch. I sketched nine logo concepts on iPad, refined three in Illustrator, and guided stakeholders to the final choice. Before a single asset was produced, I developed three complete stylescapes to set the direction.

The chosen direction used clouds, sun rays, and rounded arrows for an uplifting, forward-looking feel. Its vibrant, high-contrast colors were chosen to stand out in a sea of political advertising.

Two jobs on every surface

The name and the call to action competed for the same space. The PAC had already chosen the name School Cents Makes Sense, which by design said nothing about voting. But a logo doesn't win an election.

So every piece had to do two jobs at once. It had to drive an unmistakable VOTE YES in the moment. It also had to build a brand that would outlast the election, because voters weren't approving a one-time expense. They'd be funding this for ten years, and they needed to connect the tax they paid to the schools it fixed. That's why every asset pairs a bold call to action with a lasting identity. It's also why the brand still does work today, on "funded by the Half-Cent Sales Tax" signs around the county.

Making the numbers clear

The funding case was dense and technical, and the opposition was actively working to distort it. That's exactly the kind of thing that loses referendums.

First, I created custom data visualizations that made the numbers easy to follow on the website, on social media, and in a printable infographic. Our social posts answered the questions voters were actually asking: how old and run-down the schools were, how our funding compared to other counties, what the money could and couldn't buy, and when and how to vote.

Second, the campaign needed one asset that carried the whole argument in one place. So I built an animated explainer video on my own time. I wrote the script, animated it, recorded the voiceover in my home studio, and mixed the music. It went on to win a Silver ADDY.

The website

Using what I learned from the card sort, I organized the campaign's sprawling information into a clear structure, built the wireframes and content in Adobe XD, and designed high-fidelity mockups. Then I worked closely with the development project manager to get it built as designed, with the user experience intact.

Every medium, one system

The campaign ran across billboards, yard signs, large canvas signs, a full-page newspaper ad, a direct mailer to every registered voter in the county, postcards, letterhead, flyers, a Facebook presence, and emails to Chamber members, parents, and volunteers. I also built and managed the paid social campaign. I directed the team producing all of it and designed much of it myself.

As the opposition pushed its message, we kept adjusting ours right up to election day. The point was never the volume. It was that everything, across ten months and a dozen formats, pulled in the same direction.