TL;DR:

I spent a year working for South Bend Code School, a technology startup based in South Bend, IN, whose mission is to educate and to provide opportunities in technology for a "rust belt city on the move". I helped to craft identity and coordinate a marketing campaign around the company's first ever "open enrollment" program, and I helped to teach in the classroom as well.

When/Where

2016-2017 / South Bend, IN

Role

Marketing Strategy, Brand Identity, Teacher

Duration

1 year

Visit Code School

Background

We were hurrying to load up the car with all of the equipment from that day’s class, and Alex took a moment to look through the DSLR camera that I had only just learned how to use that day.

“Awesome idea man, these pictures turned out great!” He said.

In retrospect, standing on a chair in order to get a better camera angle wasn’t a particularly innovative idea, but as I reflected on the compliment I realized that sort of thing was out of character for me. I hadn’t even asked permission! But, there was no time to waste thinking more about it, because we were off to the next meeting across town, spending the ride discussing how we could best use those pictures to communicate the value that our classes brought to the community.

And that’s how it went. SBCS had already been making a difference in South Bend when I joined the team, partnering with different organizations around the city, teaching coding classes at places like the Boys & Girls club, as well as the Juvenile Justice Center, but we had plans to take it to the next level. The primary driver behind all of the meetings, all of the energy put into work that left no time for self-doubt, was the announcement that would mark the next major milestone in the company’s journey: Open Enrollment, an independent program with its doors open to anyone who wanted to learn how to code, to allow SBCS sovereignty over its own future as a company that could ultimately expand beyond the city in which it was founded.

Print/Apparel Design

I began with a print design campaign, coming up with a series of posters and flyers that iterated on a code school cohesive brand and conveyed the value of coding skills.

We settled on a direction with custom illustrations and code schools trademark blue-and-orange, and we started to get these materials into the hands of Code School collaborators and other community members alike.

Some additional materials through this campaign included a series of branded T-Shirts, and a custom certificate to be awarded to course participants.

Strategy

Throughout this time, I helped to organize and publish content for email and social media formats, leading up to the official "launch" of the open enrollment program.

Beyond the digital marketing content, I helped to organize events around the community to promote Code School's presence and also helped to design a website that reflected Code School's brand identity.

Video

The capstone of my marketing efforts for SBCS's open enrollment program took the form of a promotional video, where I facilitated and filmed interviews with SBCS founders, collaborators, students, and more, editing the content into a video to be shared across all platforms, to hopefully garner interest when we officially announced the program. Our efforts were successful, and the first open enrollment program received enough applications to fill capacity, and SBCS was able to continue these programs thereafter.

Fun fact: I had no experience in video production before this, and as there was a miscommunication between our team, the vast majority of the editing took place over a single weekend before our announcement deadline.

Bonus: Code Works Identity

SBCS had another element beyond the educational program: it also served as an end-to-end software development shop, building applications for organizations in the private and public sectors across the city and beyond.

During my time there, we undertook an effort to create a wholly separate brand for this branch of the organization from the ground up, such that the work could be given its deserved distinction from the SBCS image and could expand beyond the South Bend community.

The result was "Code Works", materials for which can be seen pictured here, and further information can be seen following the links below.

Visit Project Page

Visit Code Works