This was an initiative sought out to brand an army entity that hosts an array of different programs that extend innovation within the army tech space. Vanguard is an ecosystem of rapidly growing programs, which are all managed in a database that capture the data and aid the processes of these programs. This is the glue that binds them all together.
Our client was clear in stating their main concern was having a product that would break under the pressure of any growth, so scalability was the priority. There were also talks of changing the name it previously held, which was 'NextGenAAES' to something different. From these two statements alone, it was clear that this product needed a strong brand identity.
I created a logo and brand identity for what was formerly NextGenAAES, and the team I work with collectively decided that we should rename it Vanguard. This was aimed at defining our mission and vision in this project as it extends beyond just a landing page, it's creating an identity for a parent organization that has Army-wide visibility. I created a modern logo of a bald eagle protruding from a triangular background in an effort to drive home the feelings of strength, resilience, and an overwhelming sense of pride in our nation.
With a brand in place, it was time to solve the scaling problem. One thing I liked about this project is I started from a blank slate, with no actual design suggestions. This is partly because the feedback we received was a conglomeration of pain points that, when put together, screamed "we need a brand overhaul". So I let my creativity go wild with a futuristic space theme that took inspiration from Apple.com and Star Trek (although I've never actually seen it).
Finally, I put together two additional landing pages to account for the other programs. However, due to a pivot, we only ended up keeping the original landing page design. This has been implemented and is now used for U.S. Army and Congress members to navigate to different programs dashbaords
This was an exceptionally fun project. I loved letting my creative side loose to create something entirely from scratch, then to actually implement it into the real world and have an effect on people's daily lives. While this is a small part to a much bigger project (see Vanguard Database), one thing I could improve on moving forward would be to ask more questions. Albeit, the outcome was successful, but I really gambled on my clients liking the general theme. If this was not successful, I would have gone back and reworked what was troublesome. But by asking more questions up front I would have been able to more confidently present this brand redesign.