Elburn Chamber of Commerce
The Elburn Chamber of Commerce brings local businesses together to grow friendships and build businesses. I became a member of the Chamber to meet local business owners and help bring out of town audiences in to the town where I live. After six months of being a member of the Chamber, I was voted in to become the 2020 VP of Marketing. As a board member, I donate my design services for the betterment of the Chamber and the community I live in. With a brand focus, I explored many creative changes to clarify marketing efforts.
Starting with the logo, I noticed the hierarchy of the type needed to be adjusted. Elburn and Chamber needed to be larger and a serif italic reflecting the “e” symbol was needed for cohesion. The “e” symbol only needed minor tweaks, but in all was strong. Once the logo symbol and type were changed a style guide was also needed since there was none.
The style guide designed for the Chamber is a quick reference to the logo variations, colors, and fonts.
I’ve implemented a branding system through the use of Canva for print materials, social posts, and digital design assets. The use of this software is a great place to house design content for the Chamber administrator or other board members to edit as needed.
Website updates consisting of event graphics, photography, and page content is another branding item that I help create.
Staying social through Facebook and Instagram is another branding touch point and messaging. I help maintain the Chamber social media accounts as well as create social assets for posts. Maintaining a social presence is a constant activity throughout the year.
Due to the nature of a member group, there are many social events throughout the year and each event needs its own look and promotional materials. Systematizing these events with sub-branding elements helps promote consistency and clarity for members and the public. Some events include a Draw Down, Appreciation Dinner, Health Fair, Golf Outing, and others.
The Health Fair was a great event that brought out businesses and the community for physical, mental, spiritual, and financial health. This event needed design for a flyer, banner, yard signs, sign-up form, social posts, and website updates.
During the 2020 Golf Outing, I volunteered to take photography and posted the photos on the website to promote the event for future outings.
To continue the Chamber branding system to the list of member emails, a MailChimp email newsletter was created. The email newsletter incorporates the branding of the Chamber and sub-branding of events. A friendly tone of voice is read throughout the email for the member audience.
The Chamber started using Square for providing online payments for events and membership. Icons for the different items to be purchased were designed and continue the branding for the Chamber when on a third-party payment website.
Internal branding for the Chamber continued with designs for their business cards, tablecloth, vertical banners, stickers, thank you cards, and flyers.