YOKO TAKAHASHI

Community Focused Projects

RING IT ON! PHILADELPHIA250

Ring It On! was a collaboration between the City of Philadelphia and PHILADELPHIA250 to uplift and showcase the vibrancy of Philadelphia’s communities, cultures, and small businesses through a series of economic and cultural investments. A Philadelphia-based nonprofit Tiny WPA collaborated with the Philadelphia Visitor Center (PVC) to tackle the commercial corridor beautification portion of the initiative. I had the opportunity to lead this effort as the Project Manager. We selected 7 corridors for the revitalization efforts.The idea was to:1. Revitalize and activate the corridors which suffered from blight and disinvestment
2. Make them more inviting and vibrant for visitors
3. Represent each neighborhood with culturally relevant art and signagePVC had an initial set of branded icons, but some items would not have been appropriate for some of the neighborhoods. We met with the communities to understand their culture and history, and studied them carefully. I then created culturally sensitive custom icons for some of the corridors.We were under a very tight schedule, so it was challenging to identify installation locations and get permission from property owners and government agencies. It was a lot of shuffling, rearranging, and reprioritizing tasks to get everything installed before neighborhood festivals and the July 4 celebration throughout the city. Africatown was featured in 6abc news coverage.INDUSTRY: Nonprofit, Community Development
SERVICES: Project Management, Graphic Design, Custom Illustrations, Fabrication, Installation

COBBS CREEK TRAIL

Cobbs Creek Trail was an underappreciated neighborhood asset facing challenges such as illegal dumping and limited maintenance. Unlike trails in more affluent areas, it lacked consistent funding and city-level support.In 2021, I was invited by a close friend and co-founder of Cobbs Creek Neighbors to design wayfinding signage for the Blanche A. Nixon Cobbs Creek Library along the Cobbs Creek Trail. As a community member, I was honored to contribute to a project in my neighborhood. Collaborating with the Philadelphia-based nonprofit Tiny WPA and other local stakeholders, we created signage designed to foster community connection, beautify the trail, and help combat illegal dumping while increasing foot traffic along this hidden gem. The bright and colorful signage was warmly received by the community, leading to additional funding for eight more signs along the trail and recognition in a WHYY news article.This was a true community effort, so getting the consensus of all stakeholders on the contents and finishing up the project in a timely manner proved to be a challenge.INDUSTRY: Nonprofit, Community Development
SERVICES: Graphic Design, Stakeholder Relations

Branding & Identity

INAUGURAL PENN CAREY LAW WOMEN'S SUMMIT

The University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School (Penn Carey Law) is the law school of the University of Pennsylvania, a private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.In March 2016, the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School held its highly anticipated inaugural Women’s Summit.The logo design featured the mountain summit and Lady Justice to celebrate women leaders in the legal field. The yellows were adopted from the Kilgore Society (Penn Carey Law's alumni affinity group for women).INDUSTRY: Nonprofit, Education
SERVICES: Branding, Logo, Invitation Mailers, Advertisements, Screen Graphics, Email Blasts, Posters, Large Format Signage, Event Giveaways

LOGO DESIGNS

Here are three logo design projects I have worked on in the recent years:1. Open Medical
Open Medical was a non-profit established during the height of COVID-19 pandemic . Their mission was to help underserved patient populations by developing medical devices that for-profits medical device companies won't develop because they don't generate enough financial return. They wanted their logo design to represent the open door/unlocking the opportunities. On the image are the sketches and the final product.INDUSTRY: Nonprofit2. US-Japan NEXT Alliance Initiative
Established by Sasakawa Peace Foundation USA in 2021, the US-Japan NEXT Alliance Initiative’s goal is to help improve the alliance and how it serves shared interests, preparing it for emerging challenges in an increasingly complex and dynamic geostrategic environment. Their main attention was focusing on NEXT, and somehow integrate the ‘sun’ that many logos they use have. On the image are the sketches and the final product.INDUSTRY: Nonprofit3. Mid-Atlantic Area Consortium of Law School Externship Programs (MACE)
MACE stands for the Mid-Atlantic Area Consortium of Law School Externship Programs, a regional network formed during the COVID-19 pandemic to connect law school externship directors, experiential learning faculty, and clinical programs. Member and participating schools in the consortium include institutions such as Penn Carey Law, Drexel University Thomas R. Kline School of Law, Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law, University of Pittsburgh School of Law, Penn State Dickinson Law, and Duquesne University School of Law, among others in the Mid-Atlantic region.INDUSTRY: Nonprofit, Education

PENN CAREY LAW CLINICAL LEGAL STUDIES WORKSHOP

The Gittis Legal Clinics invites a speaker and hosts a Clinical Legal Studies Workshop annually.I led the branding and design for the event collateral and created a custom illustration which incorporated the workshop theme and Penn branding into an engaging and unique set of event materials.INDUSTRY: Nonprofit, Education
SERVICES: Branding, Poster Design, Screen Graphics, Email Invitation

PENN CAREY LAW BENEFACTORS DINNER

Penn Carey Law holds annual Benefactors Dinner in late fall. This dinner was held in New York City and they wanted the NYC skyline represented, so I created a custom illustration for the event collateral.INDUSTRY: Nonprofit, Education
SERVICES: Branding, Custom Illustration, Invitation Mailers, Email Banner, Screen Graphics, Event Program

JUSTICE RUTH BADER GINSBURG LECTURE AND SYMPOSIUM

On February 12, 2018, Penn Carey Law welcomed Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, to Penn. Needless to say, her visit was highly anticipated, and interest in seeing her was exceptionally high. In her honor, the Law School organized a symposium on campis and a lecture at the National Constitution Center.Being a big fan of hers myself, it was such an honor to lead the design on event collateral. My goal for the design was to showcase Justice Ginsberg's prestige and her transformational work on gender equality, bodily autonomy, and protection of voting rights.INDUSTRY: Nonprofit, Education
SERVICES: Branding, Event Posters, Screen Graphics, Event Program, Large Format Signage

Print Design

PENN CAREY LAW BOARD OF ADVISORS HOLIDAY GIFT NOTECARDS

The development team at Penn Carey Law sends gifts and notecards to the Board of Advisors during the holiday season every year.Here are two card I worked on in 2022 and 2024. In the 2022 card, I created a custom illustration of a snow globe with meaningful symbols to individuals associated with the Law School, including the Clock and the Goat. I chose the gold for illustration for a warm, cozy feeling of the holiday season and also to represent the prestige. The development team requested a colorful, cheerful design for the 2024 card, so I created a grid of colorful custom illustrations.INDUSTRY: Nonprofit, Education
SERVICES: Holiday Gift Notecard Design, Custom Illustration

POI MAP OF PENN CAMPUS FOR W.P. CAREY FOUNDATION BOARD MEETING

The board of W.P. Carey Foundation visited Penn campus for a meeting a few years after their historic gift to Penn Carey Law. The Development team at the Law School requested a points of interest map that the board members can use on their free time in the city. I designed a portable trifold map.INDUSTRY: Nonprofit, Education
SERVICES: Map Design

MAJOR GIFT PROPOSALS

In 2019 and 2020, Penn Carey Law received two historic gifts from the W.P. Carey Foundation ($125M) and Robert and Jane Toll Foundation ($50M) respectively. I was tasked with designing compelling gift proposals. While the W.P. Carey Foundation valued narratives more, Tolls wanted to see the data to back up the proposal. The two proposals were designed with their differences in mind. Note: The texts in these proposals were replaced with placeholder text to protect sensitive information.INDUSTRY: Nonprofit, Education
SERVICES: Major Gift Proposal Design

Digital Design

PENN CAREY LAW SOCIAL MEDIA GRAPHICS AND CANVA TEMPLATES

Previously, Penn Carey Law's social media grid did not have a cohesive look and it was difficult to understand from a quick glance what the posts were announcing. This was not a great social media strategy. It was also a challenge to generate social media graphics quickly enough to not miss the moment. To solve both problems, I created a set of social media templates on Canva, so non-designers can generate graphics in a timely manner. The template system was organized by the social media platform and post categories.INDUSTRY: Nonprofit, Education
SERVICES: Canva Social Media Templates for Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn

DIGITAL DONOR WALL TEMPLATE

At Penn Carey Law, a large screen was installed in one of the lounges dedicated to the impact their generous donors had on the institution. This information changed regularly and it was not feasible for the designers to update the contents, so I created a set of templates which enabled the development office staff to update it accordingly.INDUSTRY: Nonprofit, Education
SERVICES: Digital Wall Design Template

REMO FLOOR PLANS

During the height of COVID-19 pandemic, everyone was trying to find ways to stay connected and maintain regularly occurring annual events. Penn Carey Law administration was no different. They looked into different options to hold large group events virtually, and decided that they were going to use Remo. I led the design of the virtual Reunion Weekend floor plan and the virtual Law Firm Practice Area Fair floor plans. This project involved a lot of custom illustrations, dozens of layers, and teaching myself the technical requirements of Remo floor plan design. While it was certainly a challenge, this was a new and exciting project.INDUSTRY: Nonprofit, Education
SERVICES: Virtual Meeting Floor Plan

LEGAL PRACTICE SKILLS COURSE MATERIALS

At Penn Carey Law, students take the Legal Practice Skills (LPS) courses to develop professional skills as lawyers. I created and updated the course materials as requested by the teaching professor each year. In this set of materials, I created custom illustrations, an animation, and mockups of an article, a flyer, and a website.INDUSTRY: Nonprofit, Education
SERVICES: Course Materials, Custom Illustration, Animation

Publication Design

1. JD Program Recruiting Publications
I led the redesign of the JD recruiting materials to design a more streamlined, cohesive recruiting materials package.For the JD Viewbook, our strategy was transforming it into an impactful visual storytelling piece. My strategy was incorporating large, great quality photographs and vibrant colors to create a dramatic publication. A few years later, I worked on another redesign to shrink the book to a compact size. It was also converted into a digital publication for online viewing.2018-2019 JD Viewbook
2021-2022 JD ViewbookThe JD Admitted Student package used to be multiple books and loose printouts put into a large and heavy accordion folder. Our goal was to reorganize the contents and combine scattered information into a single book in a slimmer, custom designed folder which included laptop stickers. I incorporated the color themes for each section from the JD Viewbook for a more cohesive branding. As we transitioned into a digital first strategy, I redesigned the book more compatible as a digital publication.2023 JD Admitted Student Publication
2024-2025 JD Admitted Student Publication2. Best-in-Class Regulator Initiative Final Report
The Best-in-Class Regulator Initiative was supported by the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER). The outputs of this project have helped the AER and other regulators measure and track their performance against the attributes of regulatory excellence.The Penn Program on Regulation’s Best-in-Class Regulator Initiative, which ran from 2014-2015, tackled these vital questions. It was a great opportunity to included some of my photographs from Alberta and get them published.Listening, Learning, Leading: A Framework for Regulatory Excellence3. Act 135 Report
The Advocacy for Racial and Civil (ARC) Justice Clinic at Penn Carey Law published the report Impact of the Abandoned and Blighted Property Conservatorship Act (Act 135) on Vulnerable Homeowners in Philadelphia, which drew attention to the disproportionate impact of Act 135 on Asian American and Black homeowners in Philadelphia. ARC Justice Clinic students and the clinic’s Director testified before Philadelphia City Council about Act 135, and the report was cited in media coverage, including The Philadelphia Inquirer.Impact of the Abandoned and Blighted Property Conservatorship Act (Act 135) on Vulnerable Homeowners in Philadelphia4. Quattrone Center Sentinel Event Review
The Quattrone Center for the Fair Administration of Justice, a criminal justice research and policy hub at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School, has released the Report of the Philadelphia Event Review Team on the Wrongful Conviction of Marshall Hale. The report provides the results of a Sentinel Event Review (SER) of the wrongful conviction and 33-year incarceration of Hale, improperly convicted in 1984 of rape and released in 2017 after all charges against him were vacated and dismissed.Report of the Philadelphia Event Review Team on the Wrongful Conviction of Marshall Hale

Product Design

COMING SOON