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Various people sitting at tables at a coffee shop, listening to someone reading a poem at the podium.

th’ poetry asylum

Brand identity & print collateral

  • Logo development
  • Visual design system
  • Print design

About the organization

th’ poetry asylum is a community organization in Terre Haute, Indiana. They meet regularly for readings of poetry and prose. Run by volunteers, the readings have an often-changing line-up of local performers. They strive to be a safe haven for writers of all ages, to uplift their town with creativity, and to make community-minded connections.

Various people sitting at tables at a coffee shop, listening to someone reading a poem at the podium.

Project to-do list

  • Design a consistent, recognizable visual look for their promotional pieces & online presence
  • Capture the welcoming, home-grown aesthetic of the group
  • Create a reusable design template that they can use to promote their various events
Open notebook on a wooden table, with the black and white logo mark on the left-hand page.
Logo squares are black backgrounds with white text on top. The primary logo has a typewriter font left-justified, contained nicely in the black box. Other boxes say "Poetry & prose night" and "Write night" in a white handwritten script, angled and off-the-edges.
Logo squares can be combined and sized in various ways.

Project milestone

A zine-style identity

The group’s organizers wanted to have a consistent presence in their community. They knew they needed their Facebook page, flyers, and handouts to be instantly recognizable as th’ poetry asylum.

For their new brand identity, we chose a typewriter typeface with personality and created a bold black & white logo mark. It can easily be used on any print design and works well as a social media avatar graphic.

Then we balanced this with scrawled handwriting to create a nice set of usable square marks highlighting their two main regular events. These marks can be used in combination with the primary logo, or on their own, without losing their sense of identity.

The black & white branding both evokes a photo-copied zine and is cheaply reproducible via photo-copy.

Project milestone

Adaptable design system

th’ poetry asylum always wants to reach writers in their neighborhood wherever they may be: coffee shops, university buildings, and around town. Beyond word of mouth, they’re always looking for ways to broaden their influence and welcome new poets and readers into their creative community.

Building on our identity, we create the organizers a letter-size flyer template system. Based on a bold but simple grid, we designed it to be recognizable and eye-catching. With clear spaces for important information, the design can be tweaked for whatever event they’re promoting without losing any of the edgy appeal. And since the flyers are black-and-white, volunteers can then inexpensively print (or event photocopy) them to plaster all over town.

Black and white flyer with fold marks, hung on a brick wall.
Eye-catching flyer is easily and inexpensively reproduced.

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