Henry Ford II Honors Program Brand

I was in the process of interviewing for the Henry Ford II Honors Program at Henry Ford College in Dearborn, Michigan, when the Honors Director mentioned the need for a new, fresh logo for the program. The logo at that time was looking rather rough, as it had been made many years ago by someone who was decidedly not a graphic designer. I was all too happy to take the opportunity as branding is my niche design category.

The previous logo featured a map of the campus, which was also a tree, and also involved a lake, on a gold gradient with ivy leaves. It was arguably unclear to the lay viewer what it was they were supposed to see. The white circle around it read, "Henry Ford College Honors Program" in unimaginative typography, not even featuring the name of the program, despite its benefactor naming it after his father.

Dr. Hazlett, the Honors Director, liked the idea of the tree, the blue, and the gold. We discussed that the college's previous logo had been a tree as well. We both felt the tree was a great symbol for the college and that it should be brought back.

I went to work on the logo with these things and the target demographic in mind - the student had to love it, too. I created something Dr. Hazlett loved immediately, incorporating the elements we discussed and making the design fresh, modern, and approachable. I then set to work tweaking the logo into variants for print items and merchandise, creating one that looked the same as the new logo but with a more modern font and one that was more typographically focused.

For the merch, I designed variants including a 1980s/1990s "Vaporwave" style, one loosely based on the Hogwarts houses, one based on Star Wars (by student request), and several with other phrases incorporating the logo.

I was also tasked with making several signs and flyers for the program - some of which I had to make using Canva, which isn't my favorite - but they did turn out well.

The new look is fresh and modern and the students love it. The brand for the program has been a hit and can be seen on laptops as stickers campus-wide (including my own). The Honors Director is especially proud of it - and so am I.

The current project at hand has been the HFII Honors website. I handled the design and did some copy writing and editing, but primarily my task has been designing merchandise and uploading it to Printify and Printful, then designing and creating the storefront on the website. It's an undertaking, but a true labor of love.