BAMBU GLOBAL/NOWAWARE - SUMMER 2020
In May of 2020, I was hired as a Graphic Design Intern for Bambu Global, a STEM company with a focus on color-changing technologies. I worked for their newest subsidiary brand, NowAware. NowAware formed in February 2020 and redirected all of Bambu Global’s resources to fight COVID 19. Their goal was to produce a simple, clear, rapid-results coronavirus test using color-changing chemistry.
Working with a small team of Marketing Interns under the CMO, my primary projects included designing logos for the various tests NowAware was developing, making illustrations that communicated various testing procedures, helping to produce a customized mouth swab, and redesigning the entire NowAware website.
BRAND EXPANSION
Part of the process for redesigning the NowAware website was creating a Style Tile to formalize the brand. When I joined the team, the only established brand elements were the colors and the triangles in the NowAware logo. To ensure a cohesive web experience, I worked on expanding the imagery of the NowAware brand to include illustration styles, iconography, and photography.
BRAND EXPANSION: LOGOS
Upon my arrival, NowAware had produced two tests—one called PoND and another called REaD (pronounced like “red”). PoND (“Point of Need Detection”) was designed to be sold in pharmacies to consumers who would then administer the tests themselves and easily diagnose their own result. REaD (“Rapid Enzyme activity Detection”) was developed as a scalable test that would feed hundreds of samples through a spectrophotometer and analyze results in seconds. However, it soon became clear that the REaD test could easily be refit for diagnosis via smartphone and the naked eye. In order to clarify the differences between these tests, I was tasked with designing new logos for each of the three pre-named REaD tests:
"p" for "Plate Reader". This version retained the nine circle arrangement in the original since it refers to the same testing format as the original REaD test.
"m" for "Mobile". If a sample were positive, this version of the REaD test would emit a light detectable by a mobile smartphone.
"i" for "Eye". In this test, the change in color of the sample to indicate a positive or negative result would be visible with the naked eye.
WORKING IN 3D
The tests developed at NowAware required a custom mouth swab to collect saliva, which they named the “vScoop,” since a cross-section view of the front of the swab resembled the letter “v.” I assisted in producing prototypes of the vScoop and provided blueprints used by NowAware to ensure accurate measurements and production.
ILLUSTRATIONS
At one point, NowAware planned to organize a “MobiLab,” a van with fully functional testing equipment that could be set up practically anywhere. Patients would collect their own saliva and leave it in a specified box (at or near a pharmacy) for the staff in the van to collect. Then, the medical professionals in the van would come to collect and test the saliva samples. When they were done, they would simply pack up the van and drive to another location to repeat the process. I was tasked with creating visual, on-brand instructions for this process that both investors and patients alike could follow and understand.
SOCIAL MEDIA
Finally, I designed Instagram posts to publicize PoND and REaD, the two tests developed by NowAware before I arrived.
