Design / Art & Creative Direction
Congressional Black Caucus Foundation
Organizational rebranding and a multi-year integrated marketing and creative partnership · The Hatcher Group
My Role
Creative Director, Brand Strategy and Management, Logo Designer, Digital and Performance Marketing
Challenge
Make the Foundation unmistakable.
Members of the Congressional Black Caucus established the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation in 1976 as an independent, nonprofit, nonpartisan public policy research and educational institute. It complemented the Caucus’s work by supporting research, education, and greater participation by Black Americans in public life. Today, that purpose continues through developing leaders, informing policy, and educating the public.[4][5][1]
Yet many people confused the Foundation with the Caucus itself. Their names and shared commitment to Black communities connect them, but their responsibilities are distinct:
- Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), established in 1971: A caucus of Black members of Congress from both the House of Representatives and the Senate, working through legislation and federal policy to advance opportunity and address the concerns of Black Americans and other underserved communities.[6]
- Congressional Black Caucus Foundation (CBCF), established in 1976: A separate nonprofit organization that advances the global Black community through research, education, leadership development, and public dialogue. Its work brings together students, researchers, elected officials, business leaders, and community members.[1]
Our challenge was to make that distinction clear without losing the connection to their shared history and purpose. The Foundation needed an identity that honored its legacy while helping people understand what it does, whom it serves, and how to become involved.
We set out to create a brand that felt both authoritative and welcoming. Research informed a connected body of work spanning identity, digital experiences, publications, events, campaigns, and motion. Each expression needed to feel distinctly CBCF while connecting its mission to the people and communities at the heart of its work.
Solution
Connect human-centered research with a distinctive visual identity, a communications and marketing plan, and a redesigned website. Extend that foundation across publications, campaigns, events, and motion through a multi-year creative partnership.
Integrated Campaign
We developed an integrated marketing and communications plan to move CBCF forward, connecting the refreshed brand with a clear story about the Foundation’s purpose, programs, and impact. Research informed the messaging and creative approach, helping us connect with students, policymakers, partners, donors, and the broader community.
The work brought together the website, email, social media, digital advertising, publications, events, and motion. Each channel had a distinct role, but all worked toward the same goals: build recognition, deepen understanding, and invite people to participate in and support the Foundation’s mission. A shared strategy and visual language gave the team a consistent foundation while allowing individual campaigns to respond to different audiences and moments.
My Contribution
Shaped the brand’s strategic and creative direction, designing the logo and establishing a visual identity that clarified CBCF’s purpose and distinguished the Foundation from the Caucus. Collaborated with the digital marketing team to develop campaign concepts and messaging that connected audience insights with organizational priorities. Guided the wider creative team in translating that foundation into cohesive communications across channels throughout the multi-year partnership.
Collaborators
Art Director / Lead Designer: Marzia Motta.
Agency: The Hatcher Group.
Research, strategy, communications, UX, design, and multimedia colleagues contributed to the engagement. The applications shown reflect that collective work.
Research
Listen before drawing.
The engagement began with human-centered research: qualitative interviews and focus groups, quantitative surveys tailored to audience groups, and conversations with internal stakeholders. An interview with a member of the Congressional Black Caucus helped connect the founding vision to the Foundation’s future. Communications and visual audits, desk research, and cultural, demographic, political, and sentiment research informed the strategy. The team translated those findings into audience understanding, positioning, and a communications and marketing plan.
Identity
A different perspective on the Capitol.
After hundreds of logo explorations, I returned to the architecture of the Capitol. Looking upward into the Rotunda led me to Constantino Brumidi’s The Apotheosis of Washington, completed in 1865.[2] Its central composition suggested focus, aspiration, and movement toward a shared goal.
The painting’s historical subject is the glorification of Washington, as described by the Architect of the Capitol. My design interpretation asked a different question: who gets to reach that center? When the fresco was completed in 1865, no Black American had yet served in the U.S. Congress. That milestone came five years later: Hiram Revels of Mississippi was sworn into the Senate on February 25, 1870.[3] For CBCF, I interpreted the upward view as an inclusive expression of possibility, with Black leadership at its heart.
The resulting identity takes an unexpected view of a familiar building. It gives CBCF its own visual presence while connecting its mission to the institutions and opportunities it works to make more accessible.
Digital
One identity across the digital experience.
The website redesign brought the refreshed identity into a practical experience for people seeking programs, research, events, and ways to support the Foundation. The team connected audience research with site structure, navigation, and interface design. Email and digital communications extended the system beyond the website.
Publications
A brand that can carry the research.
The visual language needed to be sophisticated and academically grounded without becoming distant. Color, texture, layering, illustration, and a clear hierarchy give the system range: expressive when a topic calls for urgency, restrained when the evidence should lead.
Across annual reports, policy publications, and guides, the team developed layouts that accommodate long-form analysis, data visualization, photography, and practical recommendations. The work shown here reflects the broader design team’s application and evolution of the brand direction I established.
Events
An identity that gathers people.
CBCF’s convenings bring policy, leadership, and community into the same room. Event identities and supporting materials gave each occasion a distinct character while retaining a connection to the parent brand. The system extends across promotional campaigns, sponsorship materials, programs, and digital touchpoints.
Campaigns
From recognition to participation.
The ongoing partnership extended the brand into fundraising, social content, digital advertising, and timely public information. A shared visual foundation allowed individual campaigns to change tone without losing the organization behind them.
Motion
The brand in motion.
Video and motion graphics added voice, pace, and human presence to the communications system. The wider Hatcher team’s work included brand storytelling, event content, and tributes. The examples below are stills and storyboards from that work.
Rebranding
A distinct identity.
A shared aspiration.
Ground the Brand in Research
Connect interviews, focus groups, surveys, and contextual research to audience needs, positioning, and communications strategy.
Create a Distinct Identity
Give the Foundation a recognizable visual presence that clarifies its role and expresses its ambition for Black leadership.
Build for Range and Longevity
Establish a flexible system for research publications, digital experiences, campaigns, events, and motion.
The work behind the work
A closer look at the work.
Audience personas
Research-informed audience personas connected needs and motivations to communications and design decisions.
From architecture to identity
My study of the Capitol Rotunda connects its architectural geometry with the construction of the CBCF mark.
The identity
A new perspective on the Capitol, paired with “Lifting Up. Leading Forward.”
A system, not just a mark
Brand guidance connects the logo to color, typography, imagery, and consistent application.
Everyday brand expressions
Stationery and communications materials establish a recognizable organizational voice.
A public presence
The identity extends to podium signage and the spaces where CBCF convenes audiences.
Event environments
A repeatable visual system supports event recognition and photography.
Objects people carry
Branded merchandise brings the identity into everyday use.
Website redesign
The refreshed CBCF website translates the identity into a responsive digital experience.
Content and navigation
Page layouts organize CBCF’s programs, information, and opportunities.
Community and participation
Digital content connects the organization’s work with the people it serves.
Email communications
Newsletter layouts carry the visual identity into direct audience communications.
Policy research publications
A family of CPAR publications demonstrates the range of the editorial system.
Organizational annual report
Photography, narrative, and information design bring a year of CBCF’s work together.
National Racial Equity Initiative
Annual-report design supports the initiative’s research and organizational story.
Corporate responsibility guide
A publication system designed for practical guidance and sustained reading.
Pathways to Participation
Research on voting access at Historically Black Colleges and Universities.
Making the evidence visible
Maps and editorial hierarchy make research findings easier to explore.
Federal layoffs and Black health
A policy publication applies the brand to a timely public issue.
Reproductive health research
Editorial layouts balance analysis, imagery, and information.
Annual Legislative Conference
The Power of Progress campaign connects event promotion with the CBCF identity.
Conference communications
An expanded family of event graphics supports a multi-channel conference presence.
Phoenix Awards
A formal program design creates a distinct expression within the wider brand.
Policy for the People
Health Summit materials bring research and public conversation together.
Scholarship Classic
A coordinated campaign supports a signature fundraising event.
Sojourner Truth Legacy Project
Program design honors Black women’s leadership and legacy.
Sponsorship communications
Materials organize opportunities for partners to participate and support the mission.
Giving Tuesday
A coordinated fundraising campaign across digital formats.
Endowment campaign
A sustained investment story expressed through editorial design and imagery.
Invest in the future
Social creative connects the mission to a clear invitation to support it.
Black history and public education
Social storytelling makes room for history, recognition, and learning.
Conference advertising
Digital ad formats extend the conference identity across placements.
Executive Order Tracker
A web banner introduces a resource for following policy developments.
Brand storytelling
Selected frames from CBCF video work.
Ain’t I a Woman
A title frame from the Sojourner Truth Legacy Project video.
Leadership on screen
Selected frames featuring Barbara Lee.
In memoriam
A storyboard showing the visual treatment for a tribute video.
Annual Legislative Conference reel
Selected frames from the conference sizzle reel.
A platform for the work ahead
Built to hold complexity.
Designed to keep moving.
What began as a rebrand became a visual foundation for years of work. The system gives CBCF room to speak with authority, honor history, make research accessible, and invite participation. For me, its value lies in that range: an identity with a clear point of view and enough flexibility to support the people and ideas moving the mission forward.