Promotional Branding & Marketing Expert: Created colorful brand identity for NIH (National Institutes of Health) R01 double-blind acupuncture $2 million study for women’s vulvar pain (vulvodynia), including graphic design for Chicago bus and train ads, flyers, web, as well as developer for multimedia content. Executed marketing strategy by optimizing search results and outreach, directing and editing YouTube testimonials efficiently, copywriting, and managing website (vulvodyniastudy.uic.edu). The carefully crafted transit ads were a huge success, increasing significantly the number of women participants in Fall 2019. All deadlines met and work completed before leaving position in June 2019.
The grant also sent me to Japan summer 2019 to pick up acupuncture needles, which was a great adventure by almost any measure.
Go here for more sample designs & video content for vulvodynia study
YouTube Testimonials (directing, editing & animating main titles)
How Recognizable Were Ads?
My friends started sending me photos when they saw them. This was one of two photos sent by separate friends who saw these ads on Chicago’s Blue Line and a bus route in the same two-week period.
Full 4ft. Banner Chicago Train/Bus Ad (CTA)
Conceptualized closely with primary investigator and project director of federally funded acupuncture study (who just happen to be women). Target audience: Women with vulvar pain. Risk: Alienating women with off-putting ad, but we concluded being direct was imperative — and final goal is to limit debilitating pain if study is a success. Positive result: Transit ads brought in more women faster than all other marketing efforts.
Main Graphic Art Build
Design Problem: How to provide visual unity to several lines of copy meant to establish if women have this unique and under-diagnosed pain. Many in our target audience won’t know what “vulvodynia” is and may not have even talked to doctor about it.
Two Reasons You're Seeing This
I debated including this large-scale component of the design, and some friends are like, “Are you sure?” But there’s a two-part backstory:
1) As a person who’s worked for and around women for most of his 20+ professional years, I’ve learned to be wide open to feedback and empathic to critiques. Frankly, our first photo shoot didn’t “nail it,” and the stock art used earlier was too low-resolution for large-scale advertisements. This is a colleague used as a model, and the photoshoot was co-coordinated with feedback from her (especially style and color of shirt) and my project director and main professional reference Marie. (See what I did there? You now have my references to corroborate all these key details.)
2) I’m actually pretty proud of this efficient and precise Photoshop trim job around the legs and arms. I have several other “job duties” at the University of Illinois at Chicago besides graphic design, so I was pleased with creating a professional design on my own and under deadline.
Vulvodynia Study Flyer
Multiple concepts were presented before settling on this version with the stock art of a woman representing vulvar pain. I added the “pain” red glow, likely inspired by headache ads I’ve seen over the years.
Another Friend Sent Pic from a Chicago Bus
And even I saw it on a Blue Line train New Year’s Eve 2019/2020 coming from O’Hare airport back home. (My picture not included.)
The Co-Inventors of Acupuncture Needles Used in Study
The study also sent me to Japan to pick up the valued needles as a reliable and responsible courier. I was quick to take them up on the offer. I obviously love to travel.
22 Years of Vegetarianism Done Away in One Journey
It was a good run, but I started eating fish and poultry again on this five-city Japan trip. I didn’t even do that in Africa or Central America!
See other adventures, such as when I took a sabbatical and traveled through West Africa for six months: afriquiescence.wordpress.com