Kids In Need has the incredible mission of ensuring that every child is prepared to learn and succeed in the classroom by providing free school supplies nationally to students most in need.

One of the ways they do that is through their School Ready Supplies Backpack Program. Kids In Need was finding that their program director was continually explaining the specifics of the program to prospective donors and program participants, and there was a major disconnect between what the program offered and what people expected from it. While the process is outlined on their website, they were finding that it wasn’t very effective at engaging donors or explaining the finer details about the program. When they reached out to Ink Factory, Kids In Need was looking for a quick, effective, and easy to understand method of communicating how the program works.

We worked with the folks at Kids In Need to illustrate a build-your-own adventure, board game style path visual that takes the viewer from the beginning of the backpack building process all the way to the end.

“A surprising benefit was that it helped us articulate our our concepts in a way that we didn’t realize needed to be done.”

Claire Spinti, director of marketing and communications

The Kids In Need Team actually found the process of creating the illustration itself beneficial to their communications. When we create illustrations for clients, we ask them to present their content to us in the most succinct way they can, focusing on the information that really matters to their audience.

“It turned out that in order to get to the succinct points that were needed for this project we had to do some critical thought around that more so than we ever had.”

Kids In Need is using their finished illustration in many different ways. It lives on their website as an overview of how the School Ready Supplies Backpack Program works, it was featured on their social media channels and advertising platforms and even printed large scale as a backdrop for actual backpack building events. They also use the illustration in their overview presentations, as orientation for new board members, and a standard part of their collateral kit for inquiries.