Project 01 — Fair Wage Project
Overview
The Fair Wage Project is a brand identity system based on a small company advocating against the cultural pressure of tipping. The project promotes the idea that restaurant workers and waitstaff should be paid fair, livable wages rather than relying on customer tips to supplement their income.
Concept & Intent
This project examines how branding can support ethical advocacy through clarity and restraint. The visual system was designed to feel trustworthy, transparent, and grounded, reflecting the company’s stance on fairness and worker protection. By avoiding decorative or emotional excess, the brand emphasizes structure and credibility, allowing the message to feel stable and principled.
Brand System
The Fair Wage Project uses a controlled color palette, minimal typography, and structured layouts to reinforce consistency and neutrality. The system prioritizes legibility and hierarchy, supporting informational content while reinforcing the company’s values through calm and deliberate design choices.
Project 02 — Wage Choice
Overview
Wage Choice was developed as a direct conceptual counterpoint to the Fair Wage Project. For this project, the goal was to advocate for an opposing viewpoint, emphasizing individual choice and flexibility within wage and tipping systems.
Concept & Intent
This project explores how branding can visually communicate autonomy and personal decision-making. Rather than presenting a single ethical stance, the identity embraces variation and contrast, reflecting the idea that wage structures can be shaped by individual preference rather than standardized policy.
Brand System
The Wage Choice visual system is more dynamic and expressive than the Fair Wage Project. Typography, layout, and hierarchy allow for variation within defined rules, creating a system that supports multiple outcomes while remaining visually cohesive. This contrast highlights how branding choices can shift meaning while still functioning as a unified system.
Project 03 — Wage Space
Overview
Wage Space is a conceptual conference brand centered on dialogue and public discourse. The project imagines an event where multiple perspectives on wages, tipping, and labor practices are presented, debated, and observed by an audience.
Concept & Intent
This project focuses on branding as an environment rather than a stance. Wage Space was designed to act as a neutral platform that facilitates conversation between opposing viewpoints. The identity emphasizes structure, spatial relationships, and balance to reflect the idea of shared space and open exchange.
Brand System
The visual system relies heavily on grid structures, spacing, and proportion to create a sense of order and neutrality. Typography and layout were designed to support informational clarity across event materials, signage, and programming, reinforcing the conference’s role as a space for discussion rather than persuasion.
Project Relationship
Viewed together, these projects show a progression from ethical advocacy, to ideological contrast, to public discourse. Presenting them as a group highlights how brand systems can shift meaning through visual language while remaining grounded in structure and intent.
Reflection
Together, these three projects demonstrate how branding can evolve from advocacy, to opposition, to dialogue. By designing Fair Wage Project, Wage Choice, and Wage Space as interconnected systems, I explored how visual identity can communicate values, contrast viewpoints, and create environments for conversation rather than fixed conclusions.
