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the bell club

brand personality
Grassroots / Friendly / Educational
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the bell club is a Cincinnati-based group for women and gender-diverse individuals to foster community, develop skills and encourage education about the social and political issues that impact everyday lives.
deliverables
In my time as the graphic designer for the bell club, I had the opportunity to mold their brand from the ground up. I began by conducting research, sketching, then once I adjusted according to feedback, I finalized the brand materials in Illustrator. Overall, I developed:
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•  Logo design
•  Social media posts
•  Posters
•  Discord banner
•  Discord emotes
•  Zines
•  Buttons
• & Other brand assets
The Bell Club event flyer with a red background, featuring a green-tinted photo of a person with a bandaid overlayed by a stethoscope shaped like a heart, along with event details and suggested media titles.Seven colorful panels explaining the Bell Club's November topic on community, DEI definitions, and ending with the club logo and Instagram post example.Branding board for The Bell Club featuring primary logo of a person with floral hair reading a book, secondary logo with club name in yellow on green, a yellow logomark of the person reading, and submark with book and club name in yellow on red, color palette of green, yellow, red, pink, cream, typography examples in Londrina Solid and Lexend Regular, and design elements including iconography, duotone, grain, and collage.Branding board for The Bell Club featuring primary logo of a person with floral hair reading a book, secondary logo with club name in yellow on green, a yellow logomark of the person reading, and submark with book and club name in yellow on red, color palette of green, yellow, red, pink, cream, typography examples in Londrina Solid and Lexend Regular, and design elements including iconography, duotone, grain, and collage.Branding board for The Bell Club featuring primary logo of a person with floral hair reading a book, secondary logo with club name in yellow on green, a yellow logomark of the person reading, and submark with book and club name in yellow on red, color palette of green, yellow, red, pink, cream, typography examples in Londrina Solid and Lexend Regular, and design elements including iconography, duotone, grain, and collage.Seven colorful panels explaining the Bell Club's November topic on community, DEI definitions, and ending with the club logo and Instagram post example.Branding board for The Bell Club featuring primary logo of a person with floral hair reading a book, secondary logo with club name in yellow on green, a yellow logomark of the person reading, and submark with book and club name in yellow on red, color palette of green, yellow, red, pink, cream, typography examples in Londrina Solid and Lexend Regular, and design elements including iconography, duotone, grain, and collage.Branding board for The Bell Club featuring primary logo of a person with floral hair reading a book, secondary logo with club name in yellow on green, a yellow logomark of the person reading, and submark with book and club name in yellow on red, color palette of green, yellow, red, pink, cream, typography examples in Londrina Solid and Lexend Regular, and design elements including iconography, duotone, grain, and collage.
process

I began by conducting research of similarly politically-aligned social and revolutionary groups, evaluating the colors, fonts, imagery, and compositions used. I asked myself what did and didn't work in those designs, and how I could deviate from them while still preserving a unique bold look. I then narrowed down the visual styles, creating style boards and sketches that I used to interview club members and locals that fit into the target demographic of the club, gathering their input to eventually develop the club's visual identity.

The direction given by administration was that the club needed something with bold colors and distinctive iconography that represented their revolutionary grit and boldness, as well as their accessible approach to education.
GIF of the development of the bell club logo, starting from the sketch to the final vector.
Diagram showing two color palettes labeled "Main Colors" and "Secondary Colors" with circles in green, yellow, red, pink, olive, and dark red shades. Text indicates the main colors are suitable for backgrounds and large surfaces, while secondary colors are for accents and details. On the right, labels link these palettes to a design system, emphasizing consistency and brand tone.
The selection of fonts I picked are all hand-written, and the style of the logo, along with other elements of the brand, use thick, angular lines reminicent of hand-carved linography. This is meant to invoke the idea of grassroots advocacy through the handcrafted medium used in punk political movements to create art such as graffiti, posters and zines. 

The leadership of the bell club decided early on that the title would remain in lowercase, to pay homage to bell hooks, the late advocate and educator who inspired the creation and the namesake of the club. It is also a friendly, easy-to-read look, and the simplicity of the stylization makes it immediately distinguishable. The figure with an afro represents bell hooks, specifically in the recognizable era of her youth. Flowers represent growth, renewal, and rememberance, and the book represents knowledge and learning, which are all concepts that the bell club stands for.
a logo that reads Suhayla Batal
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suhaylabatal@gmail.com
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Cincinnati, Ohio
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