FEATURED CASE STUDY

Black Innovation Alliance

StrategyDesignInteractiveEvents and Experiences

SOCIAL ENTERPRISE TYPE

Non-Profit

How do you make a Black-led ecosystem builder legible to the institutions that fund the work, without sanding off what makes the work matter?

When BIA approached us in 2021, they were a promising initiative with a powerful mission and the right people. What they didn’t have yet was the institutional brand infrastructure to convert that promise into the partnerships, sponsorships, and capital that would let them scale.

The challenge wasn’t just visual. BIA’s brand had to operate across radically different audiences simultaneously: 370,000 Black entrepreneurs they served through the ever-growing grantee organizations they supported, foundation funders evaluating their grant-readiness, corporate sponsors weighing their brand-association risk, and major media deciding whether they were a story.

Most agencies pick a lane. We built a modular, expansive visual communication system and narrative that holds all four.

Black Innovation Alliance logo designed by Studio J Lorne over duotone community photography

AN Identity built in pride and authentic representation

The BIA identity was designed to make a group of innovators and entrepreneurs, who are often overlooked, seen and elevated.

Value icon set for Black Innovation Alliance
Action-Oriented value statement icon over a smiling attendee
Prescient value statement icon beside a smiling woman at a community event
Humble, not narcissistic icon for Black Innovation Alliance
Welcoming value statement icon over two men in conversation at a reception
BIAConnect iconography for Black Innovation Alliance
Line iconography for impact, disruption, growth, and resilience over event photography
Decade of Black Innovation sub-brand group photo on the US Capitol steps
Black Innovation Alliance 2022 annual report editorial design reading Build Imagine Amplify
Black Innovation Alliance typography system with Montserrat specimens beside a Web Summit stage photo
Horizon Blue color card for Black Innovation Alliance
Wakanda Blue color card for Black Innovation Alliance
Warm Sun Yellow color card for Black Innovation Alliance
Secondary color system for Black Innovation Alliance
Logo system overview for Black Innovation Alliance
Type specimens for Black Innovation Alliance

One master brand. Over a dozen distinctly branded initiatives.

From virtual training worlds to awareness campaigns to Capitol Hill-informing policy agendas, Studio J Lorne built a dozen powerful sub-brands for BIA. Each with its own name, mark, voice, and often a custom typeface, all grown from the BIA genome. Over four years, we engineered a sub-brand system designed to scale a movement without fracturing it. Small teams and outside vendors alike could run it confidently.

Friends of BIA program graphic
WealthQuest virtual Estate Planning Biome with VR wayfinding developed for Black Innovation Alliance
BIA Believes grant check presentation
Trust program graphic for Black Innovation Alliance
Experiential workbook design for Black Innovation Alliance
The Cookout BIA Detroit stage backdrop at the Sustainability Summit
BLADE visual identity and conference report for Black Liberation and the Digital Economy
Open BLADE report spread with charts over the patterned BLADE wordmark
Boundary Breakers graphic for Black Innovation Alliance
Back in the Black tour social media graphic with QR code and city stops
Black Innovation Alliance Web Summit 2022 booth activation with mural and case study panel
Immersive event branding with an attendee trying on branded sunglasses at the Web Summit booth
Long dinner table with florals at the DoBI Salon
Colin Kaepernick and a guest at the Friends of BIA step and repeat during the DoBI Salon
Table setting with Friends of BIA menu at the DoBI Salon dinner
Speaker at the TIME The Closers podium alongside Black Innovation Alliance TIME covers

$10M

raised in funding over three years

$1.5M

distributed to 120+ Black-led organizations across the country

12+

sub-brands and initiatives launched under unified visual identity

370K+

Black entrepreneurs reached through brand-equipped programming

SPONSORS & PARTNERS SECURED

Studio J Lorne has been invaluable to the growth of Black Innovation Alliance. The SJL team has grown with us and our needs, and continues to help us “level up” to meet every opportunity. As a young organization, we’ve been able to build a strong brand which is difficult to achieve early on. Additionally, they’ve helped us produce and maintain an aesthetic that is second to none. We could not recommend SJL more highly. They are the best.

Kelly Burton | CEO

Black Innovation Alliance
Leadership portrait for Black Innovation Alliance

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