Oakland Allied Knowledge
Branding System
Design Lead:
William Choi
Designers:
Sujin Park, William Choi
Client:
Oakland Allied Knowledge

OAK, short for Oakland Allied Knowledge, focuses on bringing environmental justice to the neglected neighborhoods in Oakland. They work on urban environmental problems such as illegal dumping or brownfields in Oakland.OAK seeks to bring justice by democratizing knowledge. This means OAK seeks a way to open the knowledge related to problems such as environmental law or science to the public. It is OAK’s way of bringing communities’ voices up to protect their neighborhood. OAK aims to be in the middle and become the channel, the hub, to connect government to communities, communities to specialists, specialists to governments, and so on.

In this project, we created an identity in which every element can empower the residents of Oakland to take action to rebuild their local environment, and projects a trusted image for organizations and communities to join this activist hub that bridges knowledge gaps in environmental justice.

Our final visual identity successfully conveys the empowering and activist characteristics of OAK, inspired by a ‘flag’ of activism. The initial applications carefully consider how OAK can be seen in public spaces and also how OAK engages with people, through physical and digital mediums.

I didn’t expect so much love and care towards this project from the students. You put so much care into this project I am exploding!

-Julia Grinkrug, OAK member and CCA Professor