Dream Big. Act Big. Inspire Others.

This is The Mars Generation.

Creative Direction, Design, Print, Social Media and Web Design

THE OPPORTUNITY AND PROJECT OVERVIEW
When the founding directors came to me to for creative services for their budding new non-profit, The Mars Generation, I knew their branding had to be “out-of-this-world-stellar” to build an audience, membership, donations, and to finance their programs, including Space Camp Scholarships for high achieving students of low-income families. Since The Mars Generation’s launch in 2015, Grand Ciel Design Co. has provided consistent brand-centric design that carries The Mars Generation’s personality, spirit, and mantra of “Dream Big. Act Big. Inspire Others.” 

ABOVE: The Mars Generation Logo. This is an up-and-coming generation — the planet Mars rising symbolically reinforces this declaration. Its new identity had to be clean and simple to successfully translate over all possible media. More importantly it had to appeal to a broad audience, from students and teachers to professionals and to the space community, plus corporate sponsors – all on a global scale!

ABOVE: The Mars Generation Website. A clean, easy to navigate, robust website that functions as an informational portal for the organization. It also takes online donations plus has an e-commerce store featuring The Mars Generation merchandise as an on-going revenue stream of financial support.

 ABOVE: Shown on top is The Mars Generation’s Facebook timeline image for the annual MN Give to the Max Day and The Mars Generation’s Potato Challenge fundraiser. A series of teaser social media memes were designed to generate excitement and engagement for the upcoming Potato Challenge fundraiser.

The Potato Challenge inspired by the hit movie “The Martian,” was one of the successful fundraiser campaigns for The Mars Generation held during Minnesota’s annual Give to the Max Day. Participant teams were rationed to set a number of potatoes and water for a set amount of time. As donations reached certain levels, participants were allowed a potato, then salt, then ketchup to add to their potato, then another potato until donation goals were reached. People shared their Potato Challenge experience on social media. Awful taste in disco music played a part, too! All funds raised during the Potato Challenge went to The Mars Generation scholarship fund to send disadvantaged kids to Space Camp USA.

ABOVE: Inspired by NASA’s Train Like an Astronaut program, this poster was designed to promote The Mars Generation’s Train Like a Martian, a healthy balanced lifestyle worldwide online campaign for students, schools, sports teams, and community organizations.

ABOVE: Train Like A Martian “Constellation Program” Sponsor Sheet. To encourage sponsorships and to help raise matching funds from sponsors for the “Train Like A Martian” event, a fun, engaging constellation planetary design explains the benefits of sponsorhship and the Who, What, and Why of the program.

ABOVE: 24 Under 24 Leaders & Innovator Awards. One of the latest programs The Mars Generation has crafted to instill the importance of STEM/STEAM, is by recognizing the achievements of young leaders and innovators as well as inspire an up-and-coming generation of talented students. Shown are designs used to announce The Mars Generation’s new program via social media.

ABOVE: 24 Under 24 Leaders & Innovator Awards Certificate. Each winner receives a signed certificate of recognition as well as a custom-designed photo announcement using their photo of choice, name, and title for sharing on social media. BELOW: To celebrate and announce the 24 Under 24 winners, plus promote the program using the hashtag #24Under24, I created social media series of the winners’ photos featuring them “in action” along with their name and title.