In early 2020, the DDB design team partnered with Marwen on a pro-bono project supporting the organization’s annual Paintbrush Ball fundraiser. Marwen is a free after-school visual arts program serving students from under-resourced communities across Chicago, providing young artists with access to creative education, mentorship, and opportunity through programs fully funded by donations.

The project focused on developing a visual campaign system for the Paintbrush Ball that could capture the energy, creativity, and individuality at the core of Marwen’s mission. From initial concepting through final execution, the work explored how a fundraising campaign could feel expressive, artistic, and emotionally connected to the students and community it supports, while still functioning within an elevated event environment.

A central part of the identity system was a custom collage approach built directly from Marwen itself. The compositions incorporated photography of student artwork, materials from the studio spaces, and portraits of the students, layering them together into a tactile and expressive visual language. Rather than introducing outside imagery, the system was created from the textures, artwork, and people that define the organization, allowing the campaign to feel deeply rooted in the Marwen community.

The result was a flexible visual identity system that balanced playfulness with sophistication across print, digital, motion, and event materials, helping create a campaign world that felt both creatively driven and authentically connected to Marwen’s purpose.

The Team
Design Director: Dru Jennett
Designer: Carolyn Pokorney
Junior Designer: Aage Vetter