When I began my career I thought I had to choose between doing creative or doing work that makes meaningful impact in the world. I refused to choose, and today, look how the world has changed—they’re even writing books about socially conscious design. I’m so proud to be featured in this fantastic book, alongside design luminaries and trailblazers who like me, see design as a tool for addressing complex issues, and design that can and should be environmentally responsible.

“In Portland, Oregon, LeAnn Locher, president of LeAnn Locher & Associates, runs a thriving business doing design and strategy work for nonprofits, public agencies and socially and/or environmentally responsible businesses. How does she make it all work? ‘I do what I say I’m going to do when I say I’m going to do it for the amount of money I say I’m going to do it for,’ she says. And ‘I treat them (my clients) really, really well.’”  —The Design Activist’s Handbook

Two of our projects are highlighted, including the booklet for The National Crittenton Foundation. More photos and background about this piece can be found here.

Also featured is our work on Racial Equity for Funders for LGBT Issues. Read more about our work with Funders here.

More about the book:

In The Design Activist’s Handbook You’ll Learn:

• How to find/make a graphic design career that aligns with your beliefs and value
• Advice and instructions for creating work and using that work to inspire change
• How to make your current design job a place to implement socially conscious design

The Design Activist’s Handbook will take you through a process for defining your own professional ethics as a designer and using those guidelines to make the right choices for you. You’ll also find stories and ideas from dozens of design activists that show you what a socially conscious design career actually looks like. Those folks told us not only what they do, but how they make it all work, from paying the bills during tough times to getting buy-in from traditional clients.

Visit Amazon to read more or to order your own copy of The Design Activist’s Handbook.

What does living an active lifestyle look like? What does healthy food look like? These two actions: keeping active and eating healthy food are two of the keys to reversing our country’s obesity epidemic as found in the report released by the Institute of Medicine this year. Showing the answers to these two questions through photography served as the basis for the design of the cover of Accelerating Progress in Obesity Prevention: Solving the Weight of the Nation. The photographic collage features many snapshots from my own library of photos and shows friends and family biking, jogging, walking the dog, and swimming, to name a few. And yes, those juicy blueberries you see on the cover are straight from Oregon’s beautiful Sauvie Island.

Items we designed: report cover, environmental graphics, handouts, “take action” sheets

Accelerating Progress in Obesity Prevention: Solving the Weight of the Nation is the basis for the highly visible public awareness campaign in partnership with HBO, and in association with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health, in partnership with the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation and Kaiser Permanente. The centerpiece of the Weight of the Nation campaign is the four-part documentary series by HBO, featuring case studies, interviews with our nation’s leading experts, and individuals and their families struggling with obesity.

I don’t believe in charity, I believe in change. Recently, we have been proud to support two projects and organizations doing great work, in two very different realms.

LeAnn Locher & Associates is a proud sponsor of Destination DIY, a radio show and podcast produced by the talented Julie Sabatier. At the heart of the DIY movement is the belief and ability to take things into your own hands and create: art, social change, societal norms, a garden—it’s a huge realm. And Destination DIY captures and documents stories of doing it yourself. Check them out for yourself here.

In addition, we join with other business leaders as sponsors of the first annual Equity Awards, honoring Oregon and SW Washington businesses that embrace the diversity of the community by having exceptional hiring and employment policies and practices. Fairness in the workplace is imperative to a healthy economy and a just society, and we are proud to support Equity Foundation’s work in this realm. Read more about the awards, and see some of the creative we’ve created for them, here.

LeAnn Locher & Associates recently teamed up with client Services & Advocacy for GLBT Elders (SAGE) and Chadwick Cipiti Studios to launch the groundbreaking online National Resource Center on LGBT Aging. The historic new center will ensure that aging providers around the country are equipped to meet the needs of LGBT older adults. The center is a powerful coalition of ten national partners and is funded by a grant by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

LeAnn Locher & Associates provided creative and art direction, branding and graphic design to the project, including bringing a team of Oregon-based talent together for the dynamic and personal photos featured on the website and for the project collateral. Working with project coordinator Andrew Hogan, creative director LeAnn Locher engaged the talents of photographer William Bragg to shoot portraits of LGBT seniors, all from the Portland area.  “It was important to show the faces of real LGBT seniors to bring to life the important strengths and needs of older adults,” said Locher.

“The launch of our National Resource Center on LGBT Aging is an enormous step forward for our aging lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities. It speaks to the necessary attention that service providers of all types must place on supporting diverse older adults around the country,” said Michael Adams, executive director at SAGE.

To learn more about the National Resource Center on LGBT aging, visit lgbtagingcenter.org.

LeAnn Locher & Associates is proud to announce our project with The National Crittenton Foundation, Rights & Responsibilities booklet, has been selected as a winner in the prestigious 2010 Design Competition for Communication Arts. The competition, now in its 51^st year, selected 185 winning pieces from 4,564 entries submitted from around the world. Winners are featured in the 2010 Design Annual in the September/October 2010 issues of Communication Arts.

The project featured in the Public Service category is a booklet designed for expectant and parenting young single mothers in foster care to inform them of their custody and placement rights. The format for the book was based on information gathered through focus groups with young mothers. They wanted it to look important, serious, special but to also be practical and functional in their lives. Thus, notes pages to jot down information and the custom jacket cover produced with local wallet maker Tinymeat was created with pockets to hold bus passes and business cards. The National Crittenton Foundation president Jeannette Pai-Espinosa served as strategic director and writer on the project, along with writer Roberta Phillip. LeAnn Locher provided creative direction and graphic design.

The project isn’t just beautiful and winning design awards: it’s successful. Feedback from young mothers has been that they love and need it and do hold on to it. The West Virginia Crittenton agency created a curriculum focused on teaching young mothers not only about their rights but the conditions under which their parental rights can be terminated. The booklet is used as the “text” for the curriculum. It’s the only publication that we know which provides this information to young mothers in the foster care system.

At LeAnn Locher & Associates, we believe in design that looks good and does good things in the world, and it’s a bonus when it’s recognized by our peers in the design industry. We’re grateful to The National Crittenton Foundation to be able to work closely with them to support their mission of making a difference in the lives of girls, young women and their families.

Read more about the design competition here.
Read more about The National Crittenton Foundation here.

It’s a busy summer at LeAnn Locher & Associates, and we’re working on all kinds of wonderful projects making good change in the world.

The National Resource Center for LGBT Aging has partnered with LeAnn Locher & Associates to develop the brand, logo, collateral, and ad campaign for this first federally funded center. The Resource Center is led by Services & Advocacy for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Elders (SAGE) in New York City, along with 10 national partners including Centerlink and the National Council on Aging’s National Institute of Senior Centers. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius says, “The Resource Center will provide information, assistance and resources for both mainstream aging organizations and LGBT organizations and will provide assistance to LGBT individuals as they plan for future long-term care needs.”  We are thrilled to be providing creative direction and implementation to this important project.

Working in partnership with Peterson Skolnick & Dodge, we are providing creative direction and design services to build the compelling case for future funding and work of the Institute of Medicine, the health arm of the National Academy of Sciences. In addition, LeAnn Locher & Associates has designed the new Achievements booklet, highlighting the award recipients of the prestigious Sarnat and Lienhard awards, to be announced in October. Their innovative and important work to our nation impacts us all.

Earlier this summer, LeAnn Locher & Associates partnered with Conway Strategic in the development of From Judgment to Empathy, a project highlighting the multi year, national research of abortion messaging by Reproductive Health Technologies Project. The resulting report and redesign of their project website is garnering amazing feedback across the spectrum of reproductive rights advocates. We are so proud to work with such important organizations like Reproductive Health Technologies Project.

The design LeAnn Locher & Associates created for The National Crittenton Foundation’s Rights & Responsibilities booklet has been featured in 1000 More Graphic Elements: Unique Elements for Distinctive Designs, by Grant Design Collaborative.

The booklet was created as a tool for girls, pregnant or mothering and in the foster care system, to know their legal rights and responsibilities for their babies. Designed with an outside case to house and hold additional items such as bus passes or money, the inside booklet features inspirational quotes, legal and contact information, and blank pages to make their own notes.

Production notes about the piece: a small, cottage industry provider in Portland, Oregon, Tinymeat, produced the outside covers, using our design. Premier Press printed and produced the inside booklet, and production included a gold foil type treatment on the inside cover, and 3 spot colors throughout.

The booklet has been well received and used across the country through multiple Crittenton agencies and partners, and has just been revised and republished.

The book 1000 More Graphic Elements is published by Quayside Publishing Group and is available for sale on Amazon.

Read more about our work with The National Crittenton Foundation here.

LeAnn Locher & Associates is a proud sponsor and donor to Basic Rights Oregon. Once again, we are providing pro bono creative, strategic and graphic design services to BRO for their 2010 business luncheon and annual dinner/gala. We have contributed over $20,000 in professional services to Basic Rights Oregon in the past 2 years and support them in their ongoing fight for equality for all Oregonians.