Campus Philly

✦ Overview
When I joined Campus Philly, the organization was growing quickly and ready for a stronger brand foundation. As its first full-time designer, I helped establish the visual standards and systems that gave the nonprofit more consistency, clarity, and room to grow. As teams expanded, programs evolved, and events gained visibility, the brand grew with them. The result was a more recognizable and cohesive identity that supported the organization in the moment and set it up for the future.

✦ Skills
Art Direction, Brand Guidelines, Campaign Design

✦ Key Partners
Leadership, Program Teams, External Partners

✦ Industry
Nonprofit Higher Education Marketing

Challenge

  • A small internal team supported a growing number of events, programs, and college partnerships, creating constant demand across many different audiences.

  • Limited budgets and a rotating mix of interns and contributors made consistency difficult to maintain from project to project.

  • As the organization became more visible, the brand needed to feel more polished and credible without losing the accessibility and energy of a mission-driven nonprofit.

Focus

  • Build a scalable visual system that made it easier for a small team to create consistent work across events, campaigns, and partner communications.

  • Evolve the brand toward a cleaner, more modern, and slightly more sophisticated expression while keeping it approachable.

  • Create standards and tools that could support new team members, interns, and external collaborators without requiring constant reinvention.

Building a brand system for a growing citywide community

  • Built a more recognizable visual language around city energy, student connection, and opportunity. Bold color, illustration, photography, and editorial systems gave Campus Philly a stronger presence while keeping the brand approachable and distinctly Philadelphia.

  • Focused the brand on helping students see Philadelphia as a place to explore, connect, and build a future. Messaging brought together city life, culture, internships, networking, and early career opportunities into a larger story about belonging and possibility.

  • The creative direction moved the brand away from a homemade feel and toward something more polished without becoming institutional. Bold color, illustration, photography, and editorial layouts gave the organization a stronger presence while keeping the work energetic, approachable, and distinctly Philadelphia.

Helping students find their place in Philadelphia

Campus Philly helped students connect to the city beyond campus — from neighborhoods, arts, and culture to internships, networking, and early career opportunities. The Insider Guide turned that broad ecosystem into an approachable editorial experience, giving students practical ways to explore Philadelphia, build connections, and begin imagining a future here.

Insider Guide distributed across 40+ college campuses

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Insider Guide distributed across 40+ college campuses ✦

The Insider Guide was designed to help students see Philadelphia as more than the place where they went to school. Distributed across 40+ college campuses, it connected students to neighborhoods, culture, events, internships, and early career opportunities through one approachable editorial experience. The goal was to make the city easier to navigate while helping students build a stronger sense of connection to the place, its people, and the possibilities beyond campus.

Connecting students to opportunity

Campus Philly’s role extended far beyond introducing students to the city. A major part of the work was helping them build the relationships, experience, and confidence that could turn Philadelphia into a place to begin their careers.

Across internship programs, networking events, employer partnerships, and student-focused initiatives, I created campaign systems that made those opportunities feel approachable and easy to navigate. The work had to speak to students, colleges, and employers at the same time while still feeling connected to one Campus Philly brand.

Programs like My Philly Summer and internship fairs gave the organization distinct ways to connect students with the local workforce while reinforcing a larger message: Philadelphia could be more than where you went to school. It could be where you stayed, worked, and built what came next.

As Campus Philly grew, so did the need to communicate its impact more clearly to partners, funders, colleges, and the broader community. Annual reports and organizational communications brought together data, stories, and program outcomes into a more polished expression of the brand, helping the nonprofit present its work with the same clarity and confidence it was building across its public-facing programs

Showing the bigger picture

Campus Philly taught me how much a brand can grow when the system behind it is built to keep up. What started with creating consistency for a small team expanded into a visual language that could support more programs, more partners, more events, and a much larger presence across the city. I’m proud of the work that helped the organization look and communicate with the confidence of the impact it was already making.

"Stephanie is the ultimate Creative Director.

I’ve worked with talented designers and Art Directors for years, and I’ve never had the pleasure of working with someone as professional, dedicated, organized and impressive as her. She is an ace.”

— Ashlie Thornbury, Director of Partnerships, Campus Philly

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