case study
Her Spark
Refreshing the brand of a nonprofit empowering high school girls to pursue STEM education and future careers.
About
Her Spark
STEM careers are some of the highest paid in the U.S., yet women make up only 28% of the workforce in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) industries. For a variety of reasons, girls are often steered away from learning about and participating in STEM. Her Spark is dedicated to encouraging girls to investigate their interests in those subject areas, providing the encouragement, support, and resources that have not always been abundant to young female learners. Whether they decide to seek an education in STEM or another field, every girl should have the ability to pursue their dream career.
Her Spark was founded by professional women and business leaders, fueled by the possibilities of engaging with bright, young women to fulfill their passions while diversifying the STEM talent pipeline. Her Spark has earned some stellar corporate recognition and attracted serious sponsors since they launched in 2008 – including Cisco, Citrix, and Dell to name a few.
Logo Refresh
Her Spark has big ambitions to add the arts to their STEM curriculum in the near future, so they needed a logo that didn’t focus so heavily on tech. HeartSpark removed the binary code behind the “spark” icon and separated the asterisk so it reads more like different pieces of a community coming together. This also gave the Her Spark team a unique icon they could pull out of the logotype and use for merch, social media profiles, and marketing materials.
Visual Identity
Her Spark was very well known for its purple and green color palette and definitely wanted to keep those colors as a key differentiator for their new look. Overall, this color combo felt a little too heavy, so we swapped a darker green for a bright, electric green that would give a fresh bolt of energy to the brand and really pop against the dark purple.
Our primary goal with the brand style was to ensure it felt strong and feminine, yet not too girly. Her Spark serves girls from 6th grade through high school, so the brand needed to feel warm and fun without feeling flighty or too cool for school. We accomplished this by blending strong, geometric shapes with touches of organic lines and accents. The result is a style that feels unique, strong, and 100% Her Spark.
The perfect answer: Lauren Atherton and HeartSpark Design.
My nonprofit, Her Spark, needed a design firm to redesign our website, and Lauren at Heart Spark Design was amazing. She was thoughtful, engaged and thorough with leading our team through every step of the design process. I highly recommend Lauren and HeartSpark Design.”
Wix Website Refresh
The new HerSpark.org is vibrant, and it reflects this organization’s excellence, warmth and credibility as they continue to level up. Attracting parents, students, and corporate sponsors alike – the bold new look rings true to this STEM-oriented nonprofit and will grow with them through the next stage of service and beyond.
On the backend, we made it even easier for girls to register for events and streamlined the volunteer and sponsorship process so the Her Spark team could spend less time in email and more time serving their community.
HeartSpark also customized a series of playful icons for Her Spark that combined bold lines with geometric “confetti” that blends the analytical with whimsical. Plus, couldn’t we all use a little more confetti in our life?
Goals & Results
2023 Davey Award Silver Winner
General-Non-Profit
The Her Spark brand is now stronger than ever with a dynamic website that can grow exponentially with their organization in the coming years. This clear and beautiful branding is sure to attract more parents and girls – hopefully changing the face of STEM for girls around the country.
Project team
Lauren Atherton
Creative Direction
Scope
Logo Refresh
Visual Identity Design
Wix Website Design
Focus Areas
Education
Youth & Family
Completed
June 2023
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