Changemakers Series — Nghi Nhan

The Changemakers Series, organized by the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA), provides an opportunity for creatives to partner up with non-profit organizations in the Seattle area to focus on social issues. As a designer, I couldn't resist giving back to the community using my talent.
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My client was Juma Ventures Seattle, an employer and career coach for young people who aren’t able to enroll in school nor participate in the labor market. They came to the Changemakers with a question of improving their community engagement. In a team of six, I took initiative as the lead visual designer. I was excited to design for good and solve Juma's challenge. I helped design a marketing toolkit for them to use for their 3-month recruitment process in the upcoming year.

Visual Design, Strategy, Marketing

How might Juma Seattle attract more qualified applicants for its employment program?

Although Juma Seattle was trying to do good, they lost sight on how engage with their target audience effectively. They were having difficulty attracting the right applicants and retaining them in the program after they were accepted. While at job fairs and recruitment events, the organization did not know how to stand out amongst multiple booths and articulating the extra benefits of Juma’s career-coaching programs.

Understanding the Youth’s motivations

The youth experience and perception of Juma was the driving force behind our team's objective. We engaged in conversations with six Juma (past and present) participants and two Juma staff. We then uncovered common themes in JUMA’s engagement problem:

There was less of a focus on the quality of applicants because they were measured on the youth who submitted applications, instead of the outcome — which resulted in half of the applicants not coming back for the interview
Initially, the awareness in skill and career development was not established; many applicants or youths came in thinking Juma is just another job
Juma was sometimes attracting the wrong age demographic; the actual desired demographic is between the age of 18 and 24.

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Juma's Recruitment Journey Map

The first U-Turn

Originally, we thought it would be best to amplify Juma's online presence through a website redesign. From our research and observation, it seemed like the website was geared towards donors and less to the youth. When asked about the website, Juma Seattle mentioned it was already being worked at a higher level.

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So, how does Juma stand out?

Since addressing the online presence is out of the question, I suggested my team to make a pivot towards Juma’s collateral marketing materials. Although it may have had a smaller impact, I thought reconstructing Juma’s messaging can effectively help attract the right audience.

I conducted a competitive analysis between Juma and their local competitors, FareStart and Orion Industries. By doing so, it identified that all organizations use generic messaging that doesn't seem to be tailored to any particular audience. They tend to be factual statements about the organization.

I also noticed that Juma's messaging is slightly vaguer. Their competitors have stated HOW they transform/empower their audience, while Juma missed the opportunity to mention their coaching programs. That is the core of what Juma offers.

Getting the Youth Involved

This was for the youth, so it was only appropriate to get them on board. My team and I held a one-hour workshop with current Juma participants to prototype a set of messages for the core recruiting campaign. During the workshop, the participants were asked to: (1) define what Juma means to them; (2) rank a set of headlines according to how relevant they are to their Juma experience; and (3) write their headlines.

Incorporating the Juma’s brand

To connect our messaging and Juma's brand, I unpacked their existing marketing materials. While the current Juma flyer offers a lot of key information at first glance, it also lost its viewers from its visual hierarchy (or lack thereof). The information seemed as if they could be communicated via a phone screen and/or interview, instead on a letter page.

Juma poster with annotation

The Marketing Toolkit

In the end, I based my design decisions around conversations with Juma youth and staff and my analysis of Juma’s Seattle current collateral materials. To answer Juma's engagement question, I incorporated these things in an improved marketing toolkit:

“For the youth by the youth” messaging — we decided to include what the youth have written to be the core of Juma’s recruitment campaign
Feature Juma’s ideologies — putting an emphasis on their organization and explicitly displaying their unique career coaching program without saying too much
Utilizing Swiss graphic design elements — incorporating grids and type hierarchy, which lead viewers to key information immediately
Current photos of Juma in action — to relate with potential applicants and for them to picture the futures they can create
Scalable for Juma staff to use later on — to increase production efficiency and allow them to changing copy later on

A mockup of two 11 by 17 Juma Posters

"We could not be more excited to have a new toolkit of recruitment marketing materials that are youth-focused, beautifully designed, and have crystal clear messaging. It was worth every second of our time and energy and something that will have a lasting impact on Juma and our work for years to come."

Mason Moore

Chief Impact Officer, Juma Seattle

Impact

Since the conclusion of the Changemaker event, Juma started their recruitment campaign on the right foot. One of our main stakeholders, Mason Moore, the Executive Director of Juma Seattle, reported that their branch received a 150% increase of applicants. They initially expected 80 applications, but garnered 120 applications.

Not only did we save Juma time, we saved them money. We cut down production time by introducing a marketing template for the entire staff to easily maneuver. Although they were impressed by our immediate deliverables, they found gems in our research materials. Our insights and marketing resources we gathered can potentially go beyond the Seattle location for future and further development.

Even though it was a short term project, it was a refreshing experience to be paired up with a talented, diverse group of individuals to make an impact on the under-served youth in the Seattle. Personally, I've grown a lot as a designer by being adaptable and taking the reigns when we need to change direction. This was a valuable and informative experience that pushed me to think through a different lens; I hope to do more projects that push me in ways where I become comfortable with the uncomfortable.

Research: Jeremy Williams, Amy Harper, Hannah Kim

Copy: Rachel Van't Land

PM: Lucas Anderson