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Agency Ueno and global initiative Good Measure recently brought a band of creatives together for a 72-hour philanthropic event to help a non-profit organization gain a name, build a communications platform, website and video to address youth violence.
Ueno, a full-service agency that builds and designs products, brands, and experiences, and Good Measure, a global initiative organizing creative projects for lasting impact, along with more than 80 volunteers from various backgrounds and agencies — from as far as St. Louis, Houston, Los Angeles and even Iceland — spent a long weekend in New York creating a brand and website for Memphis-based nonprofit Grounded, which develops mindfulness curriculum for students who have and will face adversity and childhood trauma.
Grounded's founders include Emmy award-winning filmmakers Alan Spearman and Mark Adams, and former White House Photographer during the Obama Administration, Amanda Lucidon, and Sister Peace, a nun in Thich Nhat Hanh’s Order of Interbeing, who collaborate on an ongoing basis with talented key artists, musicians and creatives.
Grounded’s purpose is to work in Memphis neighborhoods, with juvenile detention facilities and schools, to build teams of student collaborators to creatively address youth violence in Memphis. The organization received a full toolkit of brand and UX/UI design, strategy, copywriting, photo and video and web development. It also received its name at the 72-hour sprint, as before it was a loose collective of people working towards the same goal.
“Giving back isn’t always about the amount of time invested,” said Alex Anderson, cofounder of Good Measure. “For some reason, we tend to think about how long and how hard we work on something as a measure of impact. When talented people work on behalf of others — even without much time available — we can do a whole lot of good.”
Liz Donovan, director of marketing at Ueno added: "Many of us want to use our skills to do good in the world, but don't know how or where, so this is the perfect opportunity for those in the creative sector to get involved. Ueno is thrilled to be a part of it and grateful to Good Measure, our volunteers and partners who made it happen."
The project took place at the Ueno office in SoHo where volunteers met the team leaders (design, web, video, strategy), and ran through a workshop with the nonprofit founders and gun violence experts. By the end of the weekend, they had all the tools for Grounded. It was also hosted by Ace Content (Anomaly).
Aside from the good they did, the participants took to social media to laud the project. They went from mostly strangers to a tight-knit group who worked for a greater good in a short time period, and it seems many came away with a great appreciation for the projects and process, as they posted in social media.
