BRANCHES is a research project of social design by the design department of the Tyler School of Art MFA, Temple University and the St James School (A middle School in Philadelphia). Social design is a kind of public welfare behavior that solves social problems through design. In the process of cooperation, the Tyler team and St James students had a deep discussion about the educational issue and racial problem of Philadelphia slum. In order to provide them with help and support, we design MFA team, together with St James children, established a brand of their own - BRANCHES which mainly sells a series of handmade wooden daily necessities by St James students in their wood shop. The purpose is to help the schools and its students reduce their financial pressure. In this project, the Tyler MFAs provided a series of design classes and business proposals for the school and developed BRANCHES into many aspects such as branding, packaging, and social media publicity. Also, we finally participated in their product sales activities.
BRANCHES是美国天普大学泰勒艺术研究生院设计系和费城中学St James School合作的一个社会性设计项目，社会性设计是一种通过设计解决社会问题的公益行为。在本次课题中，泰勒艺术学院联合St James School一起就费城贫民窟教育问题和种族问题进行研究和交流，与该校学生一起创立学校自己的品牌“BRANCHES”，这个品牌主要售卖学生纯手工制作的木质生活用品，以帮助学校和学生家庭减轻经济压力。在合作中，泰勒设计师生为该校黑人学生提供设计教学服务，并和学生一起完成logo设计、品牌视觉和包装设计，最后完成一系列宣发运营设计并参加St James School的学生产品售卖活动。
BRANCHES 品牌设计
（社会性设计项目课题研究）
Categories: Social Design （社会性设计） / Subject Research（课题研究）
/ Business Marketing（市场调研） / Visual Identity （VI视觉）
/ Key Vision Design（主视觉设计） / Branding（品牌设计） / Packaging（包装设计）
/ Brochure Design（手册设计） / Photography （摄影）
Team Work: Kristin Hinkley / Yangshan Chou / Yige Zhang
/ Shawn Hileman / St James School
Art Director: Kelly Holoham
In the early stage of the cooperation, we were invited to visit St James School and the children’s products, including honey, wood work and etc. The teachers of the school also gave a short introduction to the campus environment. After our filed trip, we gave them three business proposals to consider, they are self-produced honey, handmade wood work and mural art creation. Ultimately, the school decided to develop the branding of their wood products.
合作的前期，泰勒设计团队一起去St James School参观学生产品，有自产蜂蜜、手工木质品等，St James的老师还对校园周边环境做了简短介绍，最终我们提出了蜂蜜品牌设计、木制品品牌设计和墙绘活动三个提案供St James School选择、讨论。最终，学校师生选择了木制品的品牌设计提案。
During our cooperation, we taught St James students some knowledge of graphic design to help them build a basic understanding of design, like logo, typography, coloring, branding, packaging, etc. We also encouraged them to create hand-drawing elements so that we could use in the future designs.
合作开始的初期，我们制定了一套简单的设计类课程，教学生一些平面设计的基础知识，如：标志设计与识别、字体和颜色的运用、品牌与包装概念、图形设计等，帮助他们建立一个基本的设计认知和思维。当学生对设计有基础的了解后，我们开始鼓励他们创作设计元素，以便我们用于日后的设计当中。
Then we created some brand names and LOGO proposals for their wood products and discussed with the students to choose one. After the students determined the brand name BRANCHES and its LOGO, we lately applied the selected logo to the brand visual guide, such as type, color palette, elements using, key vision application, etc.
随后我们就木质产品提出一些品牌备选名和LOGO设计草图，并与学生讨论，在学生选择了品牌名BRA NCHES之后，我们正式进入logo的提升与修改阶段，在此过程中我们反复与学生沟通，聆听他们的修改建议，最终确定了如下的品牌logo，之后又完成了logo设计说明，如LOGO的标准字/标准色、元素应用等。
Next, we started to do packaging. After we integrated each one’s design sketches, the finest design version was shown to the students as the image shows below. BRANCHES products include book holder, round/rectangular serving trays, and pig cutting boards. We designed labels and tags for each product (the tag is maker's story). And there is a brochure that contains the information of the items (size, price) as well as campus introduction of St James and our concept.
确定了LOGO之后，我们就着手包装设计。首先，设计团队针对产品外貌、形状特点分析了适合于产品本身的包装样式和标签设计方式，其中运用用了许多学生手作的素材和元素到包装中，最终以图中成品和学生见面。BRANCHES的全手工木制产品包括：书架、圆形、矩形托盘、小猪菜板。我们为每一个产品做了标签和签条设计（签条的内容是制作者语录），同时还设计了一个小册子囊括单品信息（尺寸、价格）、校园介绍以及品牌理念。
At the end of the cooperation, we Tyler MFAs made a project completion review for the teachers and students of St James School, putting forward commercial suggestions for sales, and also teaching the students how to package their products. The following year, the BRANCHES was participated in the the sales of Tyler art exhibition and local markets in Philadelphia. At the same time, we also did some social media publicity for St James sales on Facebook and Instagram.
The cooperation with St James School is an annual experiment project of social design which becomes a tradition of Tyler School of Art Design MFAs. The purpose is to solve existing social issues with a heart of public welfare and the majors we have learned. We’d love to help the children living in Philadelphia slums to broaden their horizons and bring their value into full play.
最后，设计团队在St James School师生面前做了一次正式的项目结题报告，教授学生如何包装自己产品。次年，BRACNCHES产品正式参加我院艺术展和费城当地集市售卖活动，同时，设计团队也帮St James做了大量社交媒体宣发。
与St James School的合作是Tyler School of Art研究生院历来的社会性设计实验项目，目的就是用所学专业技能解决真实存在的社会问题，是一个公益行为，我们愿意向费城贫民窟的孩子们传播设计知识，开拓他们的眼界，提高中学生艺术审美，让他们在团队合作中尽情表达自己的思路和观点，充分发挥创作才能。
