New York Cares

About the Project

  • New York Cares is NYC’s largest volunteer organization. They pride themselves on making the city more resilient and driving equitable change. They are rebranding to a new-and-improved brand identity and logo that better fits their needs. 


  • In line with their upcoming rebrand, New York Cares asked for a swag/PR box design made with custom brand patterns. They wanted something that was subtle on the outside, showcasing a big logo reveal on the inside. They wanted it to exemplify the spirit of NYC and mesh well with their new branding. 


  • Designer: Isabel Arnold

    Art Director: Andy Gosendi

    I worked on this project as a component of my graphic design internship with Dalton. To learn more about my experience, click here.

  • Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop

The Design Process

To truly exemplify the spirit of the company, I chose to create a pattern made of illustrations of NYC landmarks in the brand’s color palette.

Brand Color Palette

Illustrated Icons

Working White Pattern

Because the icons were mostly vertical with only 1 horizontal, it was challenging to arrange them into a seamless brand pattern. The first 2 patterns I created (pictured left) had a lot of white space between icons and a very airy feel. However, with further direction, I decided to rearrange and tweak the elements. 

Working Gray Pattern

Final Exterior Pattern

In the final patterns, I decided to slant the icons to give the illusion that they each occupied more space. This also added a sketchy and personal feel to the illustration, making it follow naturally to have icons that weren’t aligned perfectly to one another. I scattered the different colors to create subtle visual interest without overwhelming the viewer with color.

Final Interior Pattern

Because I used a very light opacity version of the logo in the outside pattern, it was paramount that the “big reveal” be inside the swag box. For the secondary red inside pattern I reduced the opacity of the pattern almost completely to create a subtle patterned background for the logo to take center stage on. This provided a strong introduction for the new logo, allowing it to make a strong impact in the swag box.