PA Humanities

After shifting their strategy to focus on two main areas of need where the humanities can have the greatest impact, the Pennsylvania Humanities Council realized they also needed to realign their visual and verbal language to reflect the change. That’s where Paragraph came in—to provide a much-needed outside perspective on their work. We began by immersing ourselves in extensive research through various audience perspectives. Throughout this phase, we learned about the organization’s community-based work around education and civic engagement by speaking to staff, leadership, grantees, board members, partners, funders, and friends. Instead of focusing on the traditional definition of the humanities, PHC addresses the tools that the humanities can provide—such as storytelling, historical perspectives, personal interpretation, creativity, and deliberative conversations—in order to bring people together and understand one another. We brought accessibility, human connections, innovation, and a love for all the communities that make up PA to the forefront of their brand identity.

Informed by our research, we created imagery that’s dynamic and welcoming, and messaging, developed an overarching brand story, reorganized the site architecture for a more intuitive user experience, and made the brand experience unique to this nonprofit’s unconventional work.