Timeline
On/off over the course of 9 months
Role / Responsibilities
Sole Designer responsible for logo, branding, style guide and pitch decks visualizations/illustrations
Tools
Adobe Illustrator, Sketch, Google Slides
Goal(s)
How can Roshni Rides be branded to match the core mission statement + goals of the organization while also coming across as a strong, trustworthy brand that investors can get behind?
01. About
In Spring of 2017, one of my friend's at the Rutgers Business School was working alongside 3 other students on a social entrepreneurship startup idea for the Hult Prize, the world's largest student competition for social good. They asked me to come on board as their graphic designer to design a logo and create visualizations and illustrations for their pitch deck. The competition has various rounds - from regional to national and includes an accelerator program for 3 months to pilot their idea. The grand prize for the competition is $1 million dollars and the backing of investors and resources to turn their plan into action.
This year's competition focus was ways to better refugee resettlement across the globe and help bring dignity back to an otherwise treacherous situation.
Roshni, meaning "light" in Hindi.
Roshni Rides aims to bring light into the lives of refugees by connecting them to places of need across the settlements.
02. Background
The idea behind Roshni Rides
Refugees currently walk miles to get to critical points within the area - hospitals, schools, areas of work and food markets and women are less likely to take up work that is a far distance to commute to.
Rickshaws aren't easily accessible or affordable to refugees, and engage in price gouging - many will have fewer riders and empty seats that could be used. The Roshni Rides team estimated 2 million+ rickshaws are underutilized
Roshni Rides employs local rickshaw drivers and has them use their own vehicles that are inspected, maintained and installed with a Roshni Rides tracker. Routes are pre-set and there is a schedule for pick up locations - each rider can purchase a one-time use Roshni Card that equates to $0.76 per ride.
Brainstorming
early ideas, notes + sketches
““The four of us are Pakistani Americans..Pakistan is the biggest host country to refugees in Asia. So we thought, let’s start here.””
03. Branding & Logo
Before Roshni Rides was constructed, the original idea was Nur Bikes, a transportation concept similar to Citi Bikes in NYC that would be solar powered and serve as ride-sharing vehicles in refugee camps. Nur means "light" in Arabic.
After brainstorming and meeting with potential team mentors, the team pivoted to Roshni Rides, going off similar user problems but scoping down to focus on the immediate challenge (vs. solar panels, a P2 they could tackle later).
04. Pitch Deck
05. Challenges
Being on a project over the course of almost a year with tight deadlines for new stages was definitely challenging - each new round of competition and additional advisor/ mentor brought new updates to the decks, edits or deletions - we used Google Drive to organize/color code the files and created a labeling system to differentiate between what had been worked on when and by whom.
Other challenges throughout the year
Working on a project that was developing over time! The supply chain, logistics, technology and service offering continued to expand as the team refined their idea over the months and in doing so, the deck and illustrations did as well - originally, the team was looking to provide a sustainable, solar powered vehicle but after doing research with refugees on the ground, they realized this was not a high concern and priority to customers. Instead, they hope to add solar power as they continue to scale in the region.
Designing without content and then adjusting designs afterwards - this was challenging because we're accustomed to the idea that form dictates function + design. Over the months, I learned how to create foundations to graphics (charts that are empty, maps without data labels) and ask the right questions to get the answers I needed from a client - even sometimes, when they were still figuring it out themselves.
Balancing an aspiringly minimalist design for a competition driven on details and research - I spent some time sitting in on meeting with the team to learn as much as I could about the complexities of their project and what details the judges would be looking for - and how to cut out potential fluff.
Roshni Rides went on to win the regional competition and participate in the summer accelerator where they raised $30k to pilot their transportation service in Pakistan. They spent three months on the ground, learning from the refugees they directly impact, honing logistics and learning how to start a business from scratch.
The Roshni Ride team and their journey over the past year (photos courtesy of Roshni Rides Facebook page)
In August, Roshni Rides won the first place $1 million dollar grand prize, awarded by Bill Clinton!
Roshni Rides beat out 50,000 students from 100 countries! The team plans to move to Pakistan in early 2018 to begin their new adventure with Roshni Rides, using transportation to being dignity and support back to the lives of displaced refugees - I'm so glad to have been a part of such an incredible initiative and thrilled to see where they take this next! :)