Design Portfolio

Gen Y Now

Story: Buddy Hobart, an entrepreneur who had grown his management consulting company from a one-man show in 1994 to a 30-person national firm doing projects around the world in 2009, had been sitting in the backyard of his former CMU teammate/current head men's basketball coach at Arizona State University, Herb Sendek. At some point, the conversation drifted to the subject to "kids these days", i.e. Gen Y. In the conversation, Buddy listed all of the reasons that Gen Y is difficult and doomed, as many Baby Boomer individuals tend to do. Herb, thankfully, disagreed, and began to systematically pick apart Buddy's argument. That night, Buddy became a convert and advocate for Gen Y.

In the process of researching Gen Y for his consulting practice, Buddy realized that there were very few accurate portrayals of Generation Y in the landscape -- either you found overly-optimistic or overly-pessimistic perspectives. After a conversation with Herb, the two decided to write a book on the subject.

As someone who considers Buddy both a friend and mentor, he discussed the project with me. Not only was I delighted that he had decided to make this subject a major part of his practice (generational issues were often a topic of discussion between us, both pre- and post-conversion), but I was excited to offer any help that I could. A Sunday afternoon lunch at Applebee's and three written-on napkins later, I had a major project ahead of me.

Challenge: Most Gen Y-related book cover designs were either edgy or too bland, while most successful business books had simple but contemporary looks. In addition, most web sites/other materials for the books were only loosely visually-connected to the cover design. Finally, the colors had to be blue and gold.

Goal: Develop a brand identity that worked for the book cover design but could be flexible enough for web, social media and other potential uses going forward.

Solution: The title (Gen Y Now) is both the name of the book and a declaration, warning business managers that Generation Y is coming and that, if they hope to stay competitive, they need to make the changes necessary to attract, grow and retain these workers. Using a contemporary-but-conservative typeface (Gotham), the"Gen Y Now" logotype in both forms (front cover and spine) serve as the basis of the book brand in all applications.

The book cover, however, was simply about design. Next, a strategy needed to be built to take advantage of the web.

In cooperation with a development firm, the GenYNow.com site was built to highlight the considerable praise the book has gotten and to serve as a point of contact for the discussion of Gen Y management issues. Feedback from visitors to the site has been overwhelmingly positive, leading to other design projects.