$TACKS
A financial literacy event for young people of color
$TACKS in partnership with Youth Valley House aims to teach young people financial literacy, specifically related to money management, saving plans, retirement planning, and checks and balances. Especially in times of uncertainty people are realizing how important it is to be smart with money. This event was designed to help young people to understand how to save their money and teach them to be smart with their finances.
Concept
Utilize pop culture, specifically rap/ hip hop music as a way to make money management sound less scary and more fun for young people. Incorporating verbiage that sounds familiar would help people feel more comfortable discussing finances and understanding how to make smart money moves. $TACKS is a pop-up pop culture event that makes learning about financial literacy feel fun while emphasizing the importance of money affirmations and setting goals and intentions for your bank account. Despite the negative and controversial ideas about rap music, it can have a positive influence on its listeners as well as help them to expand their consciousness. With this in mind, I wanted to focus on the positive parts of rap music, the affirmations. Rap music educates young people from several different perspectives and is a channel for people to speak freely about their views. Since many young people love rap, I felt it was important to get the message of the importance of financial literacy across through music.
Research
Initially, we were tasked with searching for a non-profit organization that we would want to work with to create an event. Automatically I knew I wanted my event to be centered around youths (16–25). Using my trusty research tool (Google) I went on a deep dive to locate non-profits that centered around young people. Youth Valley House was amongst many of the nonprofits that focus all their efforts on making the lives of homeless youth easier. Valley Youth House is the catalyst for youth to achieve their desired future through genuine relationships that support families, ensure safe places, and build community connections. For over forty years they have been open day and night ensuring that vulnerable, abused and homeless young people in the community had access to shelter and counseling. After just a few clicks on the website, I was sold and knew that this would be the organization that I would want to create an event for.
Initial Planning
Mood Boards
Initially, I wanted $tacks to be very bright and trendy and include typography that was playful because I thought this would be the best method to attract a younger audience. After really putting thought into my desired audience I realized that it would be important to design something that was more bold, loud, and a bit raunchy. I wanted this brand to feel like how rap music feels.
Sketches
When thinking about how to design these booths, I knew that I wanted to utilize quotes from rap music from various artists that talk about money. The quotes act as motivation or affirmations for young people and reinforce that they can reach their financial goals as long as they continue to work at them. Each booth encompasses its own message about financial literacy and they all have a similar setup, with a large quote and the name of the booth. I also wanted to use the quotes for Instagram posts as well as a way to attract the target audience to the work.
User Personas
Since my core audience is primarily youths, I created two user personas to get a better idea of who would attend an event like this. Both users are entering a new journey in their lives and want to be able to learn how to properly manage their money through adulthood.
Branding
Naming Process
Typically, the name is more than likely the hardest part of any project, trying to pin down which one perfectly summarizes the idea with something short but meaningful. I created a long list of names based on pop culture references and music, as well as just thinking of words that relate to money but sound cool. $tacks was one of my top choices along with Baddies on a Budget which became the name of one of the booths instead. $tacks made sense because money of course; like a stack of dough, cash, moolah, bread, etc! What really attracted me to the name was all the typographic possibilities with the “S” that is being used as a dollar sign. Since I was able to develop a long list of names, some of my favorite names that weren’t used as the brand name became the name of each of the individual booths.
Logo
Trying to come up with this logo was difficult at first, I went back and forth with different styles. After really considering my target audience, as well as the style I decided on a logo that was bold but also clean and simple. Like most streetwear fashion brands, the logos are typically simplistic and bold. I wanted to embody this same feeling with $tacks. Since $tacks is about financial literacy, I felt it was important to make it related to shopping which is something that most young people enjoy doing, purchasing new clothes can be fun if you live within your budget! With this in mind, this became the catalyst for new ideas revolving around the idea of treating $tacks like a fashion brand. Typically, rap and fashion go hand in hand so it only made sense to make the logo feel very fashion-forward to attract my desired audience. Jokingly, I have referenced this brand as $tacks 5th avenue!
Style Tile
The style tile evokes the visual language of $tacks, it includes logo treatments, typography, color palette, and textures. All of these elements are used throughout the $tacks brand.
Website
Ticketing
After signing up for the event, every attendee must check their email for their ticket which they will show at the door the day of the event. It should be noted that this event is free specifically because it is about financial literacy and the audience shouldn't have to pay for an event that is intended to help them with their finances. I wanted to keep a similar theme of paper or things that are money or spending-related, so I thought that a receipt would be a fun and unique way to present a registration ticket.
Social Media
Deliverables
Secure the bag
Opening a bank account
Ballin’ on a Budget
Budgeting
All About the Benjamins
Saving
Takeaways
Everyone that attends $tacks should be able to take their new knowledge with them. While it $tacks promotes fun and music, the experience at pop-up booths doesn’t stop there. $tacks was created to be an educational tool for young adults. With that in mind, I designed informational brochures that will be available at the event for each person to take home. It is impossible for financial literacy to be completely encapsulated into a short event, therefore it needed a takeaway portion so that the information is not forgotten. Each booth has its own respective brochures that will live in that space.
$TACKS 5TH AVENUE FASHION
What is a brand without clothing? To bring home the point that this is for young people, I designed a few streetwear items that represent the brand, that will be available at the end of the event for the participants while supplies last.
Conclusion
$tacks was created out of necessity, there are so many young people who are struggling with their finances and if 2020 taught us anything it was to expect the unexpected. I wanted financial literacy to be tangible and not feel elitist and unachievable. The idea that any person can affirm their wealth and learn to budget to make their monthly and yearly goals were so important to me. It was exciting to be able to see my idea come to life, from conception to research to design, it has been a rewarding experience. There were times that I didn’t know exactly what I was doing, but after establishing a brand guide it became more clear. I have never designed for an entire event before, but I have a newfound love for event design!
This project was very rewarding, I enjoy creating things that do not yet exist but have a place in this world, especially targeting people of color who often go unheard or unseen.
Credits
Designer: Cayarah Pyle
Instructor: Kelly Holohan, Tyler School of Art and Architecture, Temple University
Organization: Youth Valley House
