Featured Project: Donor Recognition for Grant-Making Institution

Herter Design Group (HDG) is a graphic design consulting firm with experience creating environmental graphics, wayfinding, branding, and print media for a range of institutions, including schools and universities, hospitals and medical institutions, museums and cultural centers, real estate developments, hotels, casinos, and resorts.

Most recently, HDG completed a donor recognition project for the UJA-Federation of New York (UJA). The UJA is a grant-making institution that uses its funds to tackle issues in mental and physical well-being, care of the elderly, poverty, and the creation of inclusive Jewish communities.

For the donor recognition program, several factors played into the design:

• Different groups of donors to be honored separately
• A historical list of donors over 10,000
• Centralization of all donor recognition in the conference facility lobby
• The annual updating of donor names

HDG took various approaches to satisfy all these requirements. Walls built out on each side of the lobby unify the program elements, giving the donor installation a sense of permanence. King David Society donors are listed on panels that are removable for updates. For the Life Benefactors Wall, acknowledging long-term supporters of UJA’s mission, names are etched on rolled aluminum. To capture the long, historical list of benefactors, HDG worked with a developer on a digital solution that’s easy to search and update. The screen itself is integrated into the overall architecture of the installation.