SPNA is a Manhattan nonprofit caring for Stuyvesant Square Park, a historic public green space between 15th and 17th Streets along 2nd Avenue. The organisation runs community programming, seasonal events, fundraising initiatives, and partnerships with local civic and cultural organisations.

Its digital presence did not reflect the scale or energy of that work. The WordPress site had unclear navigation and ageing UX, while brand expression varied across web, social, email, and print. At the same time, multiple seasonal and fundraising events were being coordinated in parallel.

• Fragmented audience

  SPNA needed to reach community members across a broad age range, from younger residents expecting a mobile-first experience to older residents who needed clearer, more accessible navigation.

• Disconnected messaging

  Brand presence was scattered across web, social, email, and print, with no consistent visual hierarchy or unified voice.

• Event coordination bottleneck

  Concurrent seasonal and fundraising events required repeated manual design work, making it difficult to move quickly while maintaining consistency.

• Underused digital channels

  The website and social channels had room to better support event awareness, donations, volunteering, and community participation.

I began by understanding how the organisation worked and how residents actually encountered it. The research connected the website’s structural problems to the broader communication system: unclear event information, inconsistent identity, and limited pathways to participate.

• UX audit

  I analysed the WordPress site and mapped key journeys for event discovery, membership, donations, and volunteer sign-up.

• Stakeholder conversations

  I spoke with SPNA’s board, staff, community members, and partner organisations to understand communication needs and operational constraints.

• Peer analysis

  I reviewed comparable New York community and cultural organisations to understand how they presented events, partnerships, and opportunities to participate.

• Brand audit

  I catalogued existing logos, posters, social graphics, and event materials to identify inconsistencies and opportunities for a more coherent system.

The identity was designed to feel civic rather than corporate: warm, legible, and confident, with enough flexibility to support everything from a gala invitation to a composting workshop.

The website became the centre of the system. I redesigned its structure around the actions residents needed most: discovering events, joining, donating, and finding reliable community information.

Earth Day became an early test of the system: one campaign that needed to work across a website event page, email newsletter, Instagram and Facebook, printed posters, and partner-facing materials.

A fresh, inviting campaign for environmental action in Stuyvesant Square Park.

SPNA hosted Earth Day 2025 in collaboration with Assembly Member Harvey Epstein’s office and GrowNYC. The programme brought together residents, local schools, and environmental organisations for composting education, a giveaway of 50 compost bins, and hands-on activities focused on sustainability and climate resilience.

I designed the campaign to feel green, fresh, modern, and inviting—balancing a contemporary visual direction with clear, accessible typography for a broad community audience.

Earth Day collaborators: Assembly Member Harvey Epstein · GrowNYC · SPNA community partners

The system came to life through more than ten annual programmes, each requiring a distinct moment while remaining recognisably SPNA.

The redesign gave SPNA a more coherent public presence and a practical way to sustain it. The identity could flex across programmes while making the organisation easier to navigate, support, and recognise.

Metrics reflect SPNA-reported results following the website launch and campaign activity. They represent the organisation’s broader engagement outcomes, not the result of design alone.

SPNA reinforced that community design is not about making everything look the same. It is about creating enough structure for an organisation to move quickly, while leaving room for the individual character of each event, partner, and neighbourhood moment.

The most valuable outcome was operational: a system that volunteers and staff could use confidently, helping SPNA maintain a consistent public presence beyond the initial redesign.