project purple
Project Purple is an impact-driven, non-profit organization with a vision of a world without pancreatic cancer. Their mission is to find a cure for pancreatic cancer and improve the lives of patients through support, hope, and compassion.
I joined the Project Purple family in May 2021 as a graphic design intern. Since then, I’ve had the pleasure of working alongside our CEO, Dino Verrelli, to create content that resonates with our audience.
branding
Project Purple was established in 2010, officially starting our mission to find a cure for pancreatic cancer and to improve the lives of patients through support, hope, and compassion. Joining the team in 2021 meant that the brand was already long-established and was not in need of a rebrand. However, we are constantly introducing new campaigns.
I had the privilege of creating an identity for both our annual charity golf event and our ‘10 for 10’ campaign, which encourages our followers to help us meet our fundraising goals to better help our patients and fund research. I was also tasked with re-designing our Soundcloud logo, where Dino hosts weekly podcasts that focus on survivor stories, advancements in research, and Project Purple updates.
motion graphics
A large part of my role at Project Purple revolves around creating short videos for our social channels. We mostly utilize Instagram, but also post videos on our Facebook and Twitter pages, as well as TikTok.
These videos and gifs are created using After Effects and Photoshop and have been used for various events, holidays, and campaigns.
Our goal with these short videos and gifs is to tell our story and inspire others to share theirs with us, and to increase awareness about pancreatic cancer.
social media
Our other graphic designer and I share the responsibility of creating content for social media. From podcast promotions and race recaps to event countdowns and survivor stories, I’ve created nearly 100 posts for Project Purple.
At the beginning of my time with Project Purple, I took on the responsibility of creating posts for our partner program, PRECEDE. PRECEDE, short for Pancreatic Cancer Early Detection Consortium, is an international, multi-institutional collaborative group of experts created to increase survival for pancreatic cancer patients. Unfortunately, the social media channels for PRECEDE were eliminated by the executive board, and the focus was shifted to their website, but I was able to create several months worth of content for the consortium in the time the pages were active.
Nowadays, my social media focus remains on creating graphics and videos, as well as writing captions and scheduling posts, for Project Purple.
ux/ui
When I joined the team, Dino asked me about building an app to help people identify their risk for pancreatic cancer. I loved this idea and we began working out what exactly we wanted in the app on day 1.
Between our other tasks, we created the sitemap, user flows, and wireframes. We studied other apps aimed towards cancer patients and narrowed down our scope until we settled on the content that would be in the app.
Using Adobe XD, I designed and prototyped every screen, button, and box. We hope by releasing this app that people will be able to monitor themselves for pancreatic cancer before it begins by knowing their risk based on genetics and lifestyle choices, and take preventative steps to decrease their risk. We also have resources for patients and their families throughout the app as well as information about Project Purple.
The Project Purple app will be launched in 2022.
digital art & print
Perhaps my smallest, but favorite, role at Project Purple is designing merchandise, digital art, and print materials.
This year, I created a t-shirt design for our marathon runners and a sticker pack for our online store. Our team has held many meetings about merchandise, and there’s so many new products not pictured here that will be coming out soon!
I’ve also had the pleasure of drawing digital portraits, creating images to promote our marathon teams and events, and designing flyers.