GiveGab Insider: Meet Our Design Team
GiveGab prides itself on creating the best experience for our partners, and part of that is the unparalleled design of our Giving Days. We understand that many of our partners do not have a dedicated Design or Marketing team to bring their Giving Day branding to life.
This is why we are proud to offer our in-house design services to Giving Day partners so they can represent their goals through thoughtful branding and logo design.
Introducing the wonderful designers behind these world-class Giving Days!
Mary-Kate Taylor, Creative Director | @marykate.taylor
My name is Mary-Kate Taylor, and I am the Creative Director for GiveGab. I have been with this company for over four years and have overseen every design project within that time. I have been a designer for six years professionally, after graduating from SUNY Oswego with a BFA in Graphic Design in 2015. I worked as a graphic designer, full time, for a few different companies before finding GiveGab and falling in love with it. I started at GiveGab as their Junior Graphic Designer, and quickly became the sole Graphic Designer at GiveGab. This gave me the ability to further our brand to what it is now. It also allowed me to work with many of our veteran Giving Days and get to know the partners behind the projects.
I always love developing a brand from scratch and being part of that integral beginning stage with a partner. A big part of my job is making sure our Giving Days have the best downloads and design possible, so every project is a new opportunity to craft something new. Besides working on branding for our Giving Days, I design how different GiveGab products look and create marketing ads and resources. Outside of GiveGab, I make digital and traditional illustrations, occasionally for commissions but more often just for myself. You can also find me reading as many books as possible and collecting too many indoor plants.
Each logo and brand developed carries its own flavor and focus. For example, NEPA Gives, hosted by the Scranton Area Community Foundation, wanted to highlight a particular region of Pennsylvania but show that it’s part of a large community. Placing a heart over the selected area but connecting it to the rest of the state with their colors shows that the giving day is not just about what is raised but also who it helps.
The personal piece, “struggle”, featured below, was created in Photoshop, using some stock textures to create more depth. I often feel like all my emotions melt together and sometimes can be difficult to get away from, which inspired this piece.
Shea Oleksa, Graphic Designer | @shealiens_exist
My name is Shea Oleksa, and I’m the Graphic Designer for GiveGab. I’ve been a part of the GiveGab Marketing and Design team for three years. I began as their Junior Graphic Designer and moving up to the Graphic Designer. I first started doing freelance design work in my junior and senior years of college at Rochester Institute of Technology. After graduating with a BFA in Graphic Design, I found my dream job at GiveGab.
I’ve always said that I want to help others through design, and at GiveGab, I get to do just that. In my role, I create social share downloads that our partners and their participants can use to promote and spread awareness for their causes.
Along with designing downloads for partners, I create illustrations, animations, and videos for our social media account. Outside of GiveGab, you will find me outside on a run or a hike, drawing and animating, or hanging with my beagle, Hambone.
One of my favorite logos I’ve created was for the Community Foundation of San Joaquin’s 209Gives. They wanted an orange and yellow color scheme and to highlight the many vineyards in San Joaquin. These colors worked perfectly to create a warm, inviting sunset feel, and I used simple line work to represent the sun setting over a vineyard.
My personal piece,’ Glow baby glow glow’ is digitally illustrated using Procreate. I focused on the drawing process by combining different textures and illustration styles. Although it was a different process than I usually do, it ended up being one of my favorite pieces that I’ve created.
Logan Turner, Jr. Graphic Designer | @mycreative_adv
Hi! My name is Logan Turner, and I am the Jr. Graphic Designer here at GiveGab. I joined GiveGab’s Marketing and Creative team in January 2021. I started working professionally as a Graphic Designer during my senior year at SUNY Oswego while completing majors in Graphic Design and Marketing. Over the last year and a half, I have worked as a freelance designer for local businesses, startups, and entrepreneurs. I have a profound interest in helping startups and entrepreneurs develop their brands from the ground up. This passion is something I’ve had the opportunity to pursue at GiveGab. By branding our partners’ Giving Day sites, I ensure they have wonderfully designed assets to promote their various causes effectively.
In addition to creating branding and assets for our Giving Day partners, I have enjoyed designing custom illustrations for GiveGab’s blog and podcast and graphics for our social media channels. When I am not creating for GiveGab and our partners, you could find me on my yoga mat, trying out a new coffee shop, or exploring the outdoors. In my free time, I enjoy documenting the places and experiences I have explored through digital illustrations and occasional poetry.
One of my favorite brands that I developed from the ground up was for our Holy Cross College at Notre Dame, Indiana partner. The imagery they provided was great for inspiration, and I loved how their color scheme flows throughout the entirety of the site.
I chose to highlight one of my favorite personal illustrations, “Peak Moments.” I was inspired to create this piece after hiking one of NY’s high peaks, Cascade Mountain. This illustration captures the rewarding moment of finally reaching the peak, and the feeling of being in the clouds.
Interested in learning more about what sets GiveGab’s Giving Day site designs and logos apart? Find out why design is important, what makes a great Giving Day logo, what the logo design process looks like, and more! Read on!
