Project summary
Three city initiatives, three different audiences, and three distinct purposes.
The City of Little Rock approached S&J to develop visual identities for its Office of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (ODEI), Little Rock Equity Labs, and Emprende, a program supporting Spanish-speaking entrepreneurs.
Each initiative needed an identity that communicated its purpose and connected with the communities it was created to serve.
The result was a collection of three distinct identities, each built around the people, ideas, and goals behind the program.
The challenge
How do you create three identities for one city without making them look or feel the same?
The City of Little Rock needed logos for three initiatives addressing different community needs.
Office of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (ODEI)
The City’s office dedicated to diversity, equity, and inclusion. The original brief included a specific design requirement: incorporate a bridge into the identity.
Little Rock Equity Labs
A program designed to facilitate collaborative relationships among community members and identify priorities for equity work across Little Rock.
Emprende
A small-business development program helping Spanish-speaking residents learn how to create business plans and legally establish and operate businesses in the city.
Although the initiatives belonged to the same city government, each had its own audience, responsibilities, and communication needs.
The challenge was to give each program a recognizable identity while ensuring the designs remained practical for public-sector communications.
Our approach
We began by asking questions.
Before exploring visual directions, we developed a discovery questionnaire to better understand each initiative’s purpose, audience, personality, and communication needs.
The questions addressed everything from how each program wanted to be perceived to where its logo would appear, including print, digital, and merchandise applications.
This process established a framework for approaching each identity individually rather than applying one visual formula to all three.
We explored multiple visual directions for each initiative, developing concepts that approached their individual purposes through different symbols, typography, and color combinations.
As the exploration progressed, we introduced additional concepts that placed greater emphasis on the ideas behind each program. Those directions ultimately became the selected identities.
The process reinforced the importance of looking beyond the first round of concepts and allowing the strongest ideas to emerge through exploration.
For ODEI, that meant incorporating the bridge requested by the City.
For Equity Labs, it meant exploring a visual representation of people coming together.
For Emprende, it meant connecting the entrepreneurial spirit with cultural references familiar to the Latin American communities the program serves.
Across the three identities, we used simplified forms, typography, and color to create marks that could remain recognizable across different applications.
The solution
Office of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
A bridge as a symbol of connection.
The City specifically requested a bridge in the ODEI logo.
We incorporated a simplified arched bridge into a compact geometric mark, placing it above the ODEI initials.
The bridge creates a recognizable visual connection to the City’s brief while also serving as a fitting metaphor for bringing people and communities together.
A bold typographic treatment reinforces the office’s name, while orange, green, black, and white establish a distinct visual identity.
Primary and secondary logo configurations provide flexibility for different layouts and communication materials.
Emprende
An idea can be the beginning of something bigger.
Emprende helps Spanish-speaking entrepreneurs navigate the process of starting and operating a business in Little Rock.
We wanted the identity to communicate optimism, creativity, and possibility while acknowledging the cultural diversity of the people the program serves.
At the center of the design is a lowercase “e” integrated into a simplified lightbulb, representing the ideas and entrepreneurial thinking behind starting a business.
The palette draws from vibrant colors found throughout Latin American visual culture, including colors shared across many national flags. This creates a sense of cultural familiarity without representing one country over another.
The lightbulb’s colorful rays reinforce the concept of ideas taking shape, while the lowercase wordmark gives the identity an approachable, contemporary personality.
The visual language extends into stationery through colorful accents and gradients, maintaining a consistent connection to the original mark.
Little Rock Equity Labs
Different perspectives. Shared purpose.
Little Rock Equity Labs brings community members together to build collaborative relationships and identify priorities for equity work throughout the city.
Its identity places people at the center.
Three simplified human figures stand side by side, each represented through a different color.
The figures share a consistent geometric structure while maintaining their individual identities, visually expressing the relationship between individuality and collective participation.
A combination of warm and cool colors introduces variety, while bold typography gives the initiative a strong, recognizable presence.
The result is a straightforward visual representation of people working together toward shared community priorities.
Designed for Everyday Use
Beyond the logos, we developed stationery designs to demonstrate how each identity could function in practical communications.
Letterhead and envelope designs incorporate the individual color palettes, typography, and graphic elements, extending the identities beyond their primary marks.
Logo configurations and supporting files were also prepared for print and digital applications.
Each initiative received a distinct visual language suited to its purpose, with the flexibility needed for everyday use.
Results / impact
Following the exploration of multiple design directions, the City of Little Rock selected three identities developed by S&J, one for each initiative.
Each selected identity translated a different program purpose into a recognizable visual concept, supported by logo variations and stationery designs for practical use.
ODEI uses a bridge to represent connection.
Emprende combines the symbolism of a lightbulb with colors inspired by Latin American flags to celebrate entrepreneurship and cultural diversity.
Little Rock Equity Labs uses simplified human figures to represent individuals coming together around shared priorities.
Together, the identities provide the City with distinct visual representations for three programs serving different community needs.
The project demonstrates how thoughtful identity design can make public initiatives easier to recognize and understand, while respecting the people and purposes behind them.