CCEA Logo

The Crisis Center of East Alabama logo project is one of my favorite to date. Completed as part of my final Public Relations Campaigns project, CCEA needed a logo that was light, appealing and easily recognizable. I rarely use my first idea, but the tree seemed natural choice in this project. CCEA wanted to promote itself locally (even though the hotline is available to anybody). The connection between the tree and Toomer’s Oaks seemed appropriate, not to mention trees are symbolic of strength, protection and renewal. Several variations of the logo exist.

The 40th anniversary version, and the regular print versions are pictured above. The web version, featured in the portfolio section, has an inner shadow that makes the logo appear as if the logo was pressed into the background.

I have also put together a quick tutorial video that shows how to create a vector tree, similar to the one in the logo, using Adobe Illustrator.

Promoting Ideas with Klout

Pitching the right idea to the right people can make a world of difference. The question is how do I find the right people?

These last few weeks I have spent a great deal of time brainstorming ideas to promote the Elephant on Campus. When thinking about people to pitch we are looking for people that are influential about higher education reform. We must figure out a way to target a small, but passionate group of people with no budget.

About this same time I discovered Klout, a free influence measurement tool for Twitter. Klout’s algorithm measures the interactivity of the content users create and share on a scale of 0 to 100. The higher the score, the more influential the user.

The most important tool is Klout Topics, which pinpoints topics specific users are influential about.

So, for the documentary we are looking for those who are influential about #education, #college and #educationreform. The Top +K Recipient category is the most accurate way to measure who is influential about a specific topic, because users are the ones that awarding influence.

Once potential influencers are found it is up to you to reach out and make a compelling pitch. This is just a way to find influential people interested in a particular topic, that are not necessarily famous.