Volunteering for Good Measure

Volunteering for Good Measure

First let me say what a privilege it’s been to serve the San Diego community, who’s embraced this Philly-transplant with open arms. Love you, SD.

Good Measure is a pop-up design agency that enlists a national effort to help non-profit organizations with their brand and more. From dissecting the current brand, re-thinking impact, planning for hand-off and thinking long-term brand longevity, Good Measure pulls in everyone’s efforts for the greater good. San Diego was their fourth pop-up and we got to work with Humble Design - a non-profit that creates homes for the homeless using donated good-condition furniture - say whaatt. I know, they’re really cool.

KICK OFF

After intros, briefs, brainstorms.. my brain is mush. But it also feels so good to start to make sense of things. In the beginning things felt surreal and almost impossible. To overhaul an entire brand in 72 hours… is a HUGE undertaking. Where do we begin? How do we break off the work? What direction are we taking? Is this the best course of action given time constraints? Aaahhh! These were all the questions floating in my mind going into it. To say the least I now realize the moral behind the saying, it takes a village. To put it into perspective, BASIC + Grizzly + Classy, hosted over 100 creatives from various fields to come together and get this done. People have come from all over to participate and pitch into this effort, and you could really feel how stoked everyone was just to be there and help.

DAY 2

Purely exhilarating mayhem. I’ve never felt time slip by so fast. After getting to know our crew ( yee UX and Dev! ) and a rough direction on where to start, we all just dove right in. Everyone rose to the occasion and more. Half of our team wasn’t fluent in the programs the host agencies were using, but that didn’t stop us. We were all just in it for the cause, and that meant getting comfortable with being uncomfortable fast.

11 pm rolls in and we’re all patiently waiting to see what the Brand teams had came up with for concept moving forward. This was the first time we were all going to meet the client. Anticipation was rising and we all could feel it. It was tense but in a good way - we just wanted them to love it!

After the presentation the clients naturally took time to discuss the two very different directions before them. If I was on that team, I’d have bitten my nails til I had none!! It was so close. And both teams did an AMAZING job. They ended up merging the two styles that birthed an even better one.

DAY 3

The final push. Everyone was tired but still going strong! By now we’ve gone past the awkwardness of being strangers and just started buckling down even more for the day ahead. It was amazing working next to some of the best talent in San Diego (also LA, TJ, Canada, NY, Austin!) and the end of this day was going to be the culmination of all our efforts. We started the day at 8:30 am and where we were at the time felt so far from our goal - it was starting to feel impossible. Hours had gone, more wireframes than I can count, the Dev team patiently waiting on everyone… I caved and cracked open a Redbull for them wings I needed so badly haha. But damn… the final presentation to the client (which I skipped because I had no brains cells left, haha!), was a homerun. The site isn’t live yet! But I can’t wait to see how Humble Design evolves with the help of Good Measure.

Special Shout Outs to These Amazing People

Max Pete - My partner in crime, for doing this with me.
Rodrigo Calderon - Founder of Janitor, an integral part of Good Measure, and the guy I consider my mentor, for encouraging me always and instilling in me confidence.
Alex and Tres - For your vision, dedication, and unwavering work ethic and creativity to push us all and lead us to the finish line. You guys are an inspiration, I’m forever changed and see you in Austin!
Liz and Garrett - For lending your expertise and leading the web team fiercely everyday.
Lizzie Callen - For helping bridge the creative communities of San Diego, locals and all!
All Leads - For being our trailblazers, showing everyone the paths to take.

Whew! That got a little emotional, haha. But truly.. thank you to everyone who was a part of this effort. I’m deeply honored and humbled to have served for the greater good with you all.