Details

Tasked initially with developing an object – such as “a 3-legged stool” representing the mission, vision and values, along with a side leg that was the strategic goals in a supporting role – I began researching and asking employees why they chose to work at LCRA and what their take was on the mission, “To enhance the quality of life of the Texans we serve through water stewardship, energy and community service”.

After crowd-sourcing countless keywords and brainstorming hundreds of taglines, objects and ideas of what could concisely and interestingly represent both the multifaceted company as a whole and the individual contribution of each employee, and simultaneously embody the complete set as well as each part of LCRA’s mission, vision, values and the strategic goals that support them, I looked deep into what was driving the hard work and what everyone seemed to have in common:

People – working together to proudly serve other people.

Goal

• Reintroduce LCRA’s mission, vision, values and strategic goals in a unified way using a simple, memorable, direct campaign employees will rally behind from the ground up.

• Create a slogan that is recognizable, easily recited and shows employees are proud to be members of LCRA.

Audience

• Current employees – a diverse mix of people spanning different ages, genders, backgrounds and years of service, physically located across the state of Texas and performing dramatically different jobs ranging from the traditional desk worker to transmission pole linemen to water quality analysts and hydrologists and beyond.

Together.

The Feeling

• A people-centric campaign showcasing employees working together for the common good, centered around community, teamwork and a sense of belonging.

• Here, we’re better together and can accomplish anything when we rely on one another.

The Look

• The typographic treatment is bold, rooted, unified and unapologetic in its presence, embodying the strength LCRA employees possess when they work together to accomplish their goals.

• Centered around heavy in-house photography, the campaign shows a diverse cross-section of real life at LCRA and within its customer communities.

Original Wordmark

Using my design for the original Together wordmark, I applied it by itself and in combination with other existing brand elements to tell LCRA’s story.

Wordmark Variations

The Together brand was designed to be used both as a standalone wordmark and in companion with modifiers to expand its use across diverse situations, including for recruitment, community service and to meet business goals.

The Full Set

To visually show how the four elements – LCRA’s mission, vision, values and strategic goals – interrelate and equally support the overall idea of togetherness, I created a colorful, symmetrical Venn diagram using bright pre-existing brand colors that quickly and easily conveys the idea of cohesiveness, while still giving each element its own importance and color within the collective.

Each circle can stand alone when focusing on the one element, and when all are used in conjunction symbolizes how LCRA is made up of the diverse sum of it’s parts – the thousands of employees working together, no matter the area of the business, all joining forces for the same unified purpose to create the larger picture.

Digital Monitors

To get a consistent, branded message to thousands of employees, I carried the look to various monitor designs. Combining the company’s individual mission, vision, values and strategic goals – as well as the Venn diagram of the collective set to show employees how it all interrelates – with the Together wordmark and many diverse employee photos, I created a comprehensive set of rotating messages that are displayed on wall monitors at various LCRA locations across the state.

The digital monitor designs were a simple and effective way to show the flexibility of the overarching Together brand and the individual values logos throughout various seasons, events and scenarios while also showcasing in-house photography. Football season in customer communities, volunteer events, recreational activities at the parks and employees hard at work serving Texans in different ways are just some examples of how the Together brand touches every facet of life at LCRA.

In addition to the ongoing monitor messaging, when the COVID-19 pandemic began and some employees stayed on-site to continue essential job duties, I was able to easily translate the Together brand for appropriate messaging.

Other Digital Media

Along with digital monitor messaging on heavy rotation at the different facilities, I designed a multitude of other digital pieces branded with various elements within the overarching Together campaign.

Homepage sliders and embedded art promoting internally-published articles on the company’s intranet, login screens pushed to all employee work computers and tiles for the jobs section of the externally-facing corporate website are just some of the places that showcased the five individual values logos, the Together wordmark, the mission/vision/values/strategic goals Venn diagram, employee photos and adjusted, direct language.

Environmental

In addition to my many digital media creations, I designed and oversaw the design of various in-person messaging, including full scale wall wraps, small vinyl window clings, acrylic installations and vinyl banners to be used by all of our departments in varied locations across the state of Texas.

From the traditional office building setting to inside LCRA’s dams, power plants and large warehouse-style workshops, we created a layered, scalable experience, teasing the original wordmark along with each of the five values colors in parking garages, and unveiling LCRA’s mission, vision, values and strategic goals as the viewer navigates through campus from initial arrival to publicly-accessible areas, like lobbies, to locked employee-only areas.

Level 1 Acrylics | Main Lobbies

In addition to the mission/vision/values/strategic goals Venn diagram, multiple sets of mix-and-match standalone acrylics were created for each of the four elements to be displayed in the main building’s lobby at each LCRA facility, where every campus visitor must first check in before going to another area of the campus.

Level 2 Acrylics | Additional Lobbies

Many of LCRA’s campuses have multiple buildings that are inhabited by employees and visitors alike. To offer more variety and add another layer to the story, my team also created a set of wall-mounted acrylics for the secondary building lobbies.

Level 3 Acrylics | Office Spaces

For areas where employees physically work, we allowed the departments to choose the photography and modified messaging they wanted in their space, with the idea that each group would showcase art highlighting their own employees and specific roles within the company. The messaging for this level of artwork is either the specific LCRA values logos or a variation of the Together wordmark that complements the department’s job function.

Level 3 Vinyl Banners | Non-Traditional Spaces

With such a varied workforce and vast mission to serve Texans, LCRA’s physical facilities include more than traditional offices where the acrylics are used. Warehouses, laboratories, dams and power plants are just some examples of areas that serve different functions and have different needs. For this reason, we also designed durable vinyl banners (in many sizes and proportions to accommodate different spaces) that can be hung in many different places and withstand the elements while still sharing the brand.

InHouse Design Awards

Since 1963, Graphic Design USA has been a business-to-business information source for graphic design professionals, covering news, people, project, trends, technology, products and services. In addition to their well-known website as well as a print and digital magazine, GDUSA hosts several national design competitions each year that showcase the best in Graphic Design, In-House Design, Web Design, Package Design, Healthcare Design, and Digital Design.

Designed to tell our story internally and with more than 6,800 entries this year, the Together campaign is a 2021 InHouse Design Award Winner in the Branding + Identity Programs category.

2021 InHouse Design Award Winner | Branding + Identity Programs

Other GDUSA InHouse Design Award winners include companies, organizations and brands representing: AARP, Amazon, American Bar Association, American Heart Association, Art Institute of Chicago, Auburn University, Bank of America, Citibank, Doritos, Durst Organization, Gatorade, Georgia Transmission, Hallmark, Kaiser Permanente, Lipton, Mattel, Maxell, NASA, PepsiCo, Phillips Academy Andover, Prudential, Raytheon, Robert Half, State Farm, Shutterstock, Taco Bell, Tufts Medical Center, Walgreens, Walmart, WebMD, Whole Foods

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