Active Kids Association of Sport (AKASPORT)

I am AKA's in-house Graphic Designer & Branding Manager. I spearheaded AKA's rebrand in honor of their 20th year anniversary and several other projects since. AKASPORT is a youth sports nonprofit organization that specializes in a variety of programs to keep kids active and well rounded. They are known for their programs that offer multiple sports for kids to try that may not have had a chance to before.

Logo Variations

AKA's main logo is designed to be the primary variation across the brand's website and print materials. This logo is made to be scaled at a large size to comfortably read and identify the elements inside the ring.

{Slide through to see brand colors & logo adjustments}

The Secondary Logo is AKA's miniature baby. The variation encompasses simplicity to allow for easy reading and recognition even when significantly scaled down, both digitally and physically.

{Slide through to see brand colors & logo adjustments}

Ready, Set, REBRAND!

The Creative Process

The Rebrand Evolution turned SOLUTION -

Gettin' Sketchy

One of the ways AKA differentiates itself from other competitors is by offering an archery program. I made a play at incorporating that in two of the above sketches, as well as some fun and youthful ideas to coincide with movement, active kids, and adventure.

Digital Exploration

At this point I am trying to digitalize my sketches and see what directions I could use to bring to life. AKA wanted me to include several sports that they offer into the rebrand. So next to these I made a rough bunch of sports balls to attach and visualize what works and what doesn't. In all three driections shown here I have an archery emphasized variation, a fun variation and a simple but bold one.

Digging Deeper

I was working with my original ideations and it still wasn't quite fitting for AKA's rebrand. The hardest part was trying to figure out a good balance between something that kids would love and relate to, but also something that adults would find credible, and recognizable... especially for loyal AKA families that knew the old logo. The question became; how can we preserve our AKA community while reaching new campers and different audiences through this rebrand.

Then, we finalized on the color palette, and by digging deep I started playing with one of my very early sketches of a kid's foot getting ready to push off to run. I ended up designing it inorder to unify it as the "K", with a couple of kerning tweaks, and making sure the thickness is the same as the Bryson typeface. Lastly, I rotated the orange ring of fire on the main logo and softened the negative space around the AKA mark/ kid's foot to give off a more organic look.

AKA Rebranded!

The final brand system, includes a full package with "BRYSON" used as the logo's typeface and "Lato" as the secondary type. Overall, the logos, visual identity and graphics are meant to be versatile across platforms, with certain specifications. The main logo is great for showcasing on billboards, banners, and easy to be seen materials. The Secondary AKA logo is simple and bold but perfect for socials, websites and other scaled down inserts. The logos, typefaces and colors all harmonize to relate to be both parent facing, sponsor facing and camper loving. As well as the two patterns that are included, which one is made up of the sport icons, and the second pattern, that's extracted from the ring of fire embers.