Visual Identity
Motion Design
Brand Strategy
The Innocence Project is best known for exonerating innocent people, but those landmark victories are only one part of its work. Its success has spawned dozens of affiliated organizations worldwide and inspired many others to take on wrongful conviction cases, transforming the field over the past 35 years. There was an opportunity to reposition it not simply as an organization that frees innocent people, but as the nation's, and the world's, leading authority on wrongful conviction, with expertise spanning litigation, policy reform, research, forensic science, and reentry services that drive systemic change.
By bringing audiences behind the scenes and making this broader spectrum of work visible, the series aims to reinforce the organization's role as the field's defining voice and most comprehensive force for change.
Drawing from legal transcripts from Innocence Project cases, where brackets indicate a sidebar outside the official record, I used brackets as the central device to frame the people, questions, and ideas that often sit outside the public conversation, the context about the organization's work that the series aims to provide.
I worked with the digital team to develop the content strategy and visual identity for Sidebar. I led the team on positioning efforts for the series, honing its objectives, audiences, value proposition, and defining its relation to the larger Innocence Project brand. After which, I developed the full visual identity, including the wordmark, motion identity, usage guidelines and more.
The name reflects the tone: a sidebar is a conversation, not a lecture. It was important that our experts are in conversation with our audiences rather than lecturing them around their areas of expertise. That idea carries through the lowercase wordmark and typographic treatment, giving the series a more informal, accessible, and youthful voice to address complex public issues.
The identity was designed as a flexible system capable of scaling across short-form video, web articles, email, social media, events, and future formats. This flexibility allows Sidebar to function as a long-term content franchise rather than a one-off campaign. Whether encountered through a social video, in-depth article, or live experience, each touchpoint feels connected to a larger, cohesive brand narrative.
To introduce the series, I developed a teaser trailer that brought the Sidebar concept to life while demonstrating the flexibility of its visual system. Culminating with the invitation, Let's sidebar about it, the trailer serves as both a launch asset and a proof of concept for a scalable series.
While still in its early stages, Sidebar has already created value by providing a cohesive framework for how the Innocence Project packages and presents its expertise across channels. By bringing together people, issues, and ideas that were previously communicated in isolation, the series helps audiences develop a broader understanding of the organization's mission and impact.
The project also created more depth in a visual brand that was becoming stagnant and served as a catalyst for brand evolution. By introducing new approaches to motion, typography, and how to package and market multimedia content, Sidebar expanded the possibilities of the Innocence Project's brand that had remained largely unchanged for years.
Alyxaundra Sanders, Digital Content Strategy
Mrinali Mbemba, Social Dissemination