Castro Valley Sanitary District 80th Anniversary Branding & Print Assets
Illustration, print design • July—September 2019
A series of celebratory print assets for Castro Valley Sanitary District (CVSan), a local, small public agency in charge of wastewater services and zero waste for the city of Castro Valley.
2019 marks their 80th anniversary, so they needed a variety of print assets for the community’s Fall Festival to designate their booth section and communicate their work to the community, in a show-stopping way. The Fall Festival is a family-friendly event, with the main activities geared toward children, so I wanted to represent that through the final pieces.
Each team gave me a general idea of their activities, and my role was to take creative direction with the hierarchy of information and overall visual design. I came up with three specific asset groups: welcome banners, signage, and various other decorative elements depending on the team. The result is a playful medley of illustrations intended to appeal to kids and parents alike and also to be emblematic of each department’s work.
My role for the project was creative direction, illustration, graphic design, proofing, and photography.
Research
Since this was my first project with CVSan, I needed to spend time learning about their various activities, teams, and programs – especially since the final assets needed to be representative of all of that. In speaking with the team members, learning about CVSan’s history, and even tagging along for some of their routine trips around town (doing things like inspecting sewers, cleaning pipes, and checking new properties), I was able to get a better perspective of their values and work.
Initial Concept
I had a creative vision from the beginning to incorporate character illustrations, because so much of CVSan’s work is invisible or behind the scenes. To emphasize the work that they do and the people behind the agency, I opted for an approach of creating characters engaged in their various activities. I also incorporated additional motifs that were specific to each team throughout the assets – for Engineering, it was diagrams and markings; for Collections, it was elements of nature.
Additional Assets
I created a special pop-up banner that Engineering could use for the topic of their Private Sewer Lateral program, since it’s a main component of their workload. I also designed a character (appropriately named Sewer Joe) cut out of wood to be used as a photobooth prop for kids.
