The Bronx Conserva­tory of Music

The collaboration between IOP, our BrandNewBrand! partners, and The Bronx Conservatory of Music culminates with the launch of The Conservatory’s identity and website. At the end of a challenging and unprecedented year for all, it was a rewarding achievement worth celebration!

The Conservatory’s new messaging, logo and palette capture the youthful energy of the conservatory and the opportunities for personal growth and self expression that it brings. This visual identity is brought to life in the website and across a full spread of communications tools, including Word and PowerPoint templates, business cards, and recital program templates.

And, as the work took place throughout 2020, the need for supporting the arts and arts education has never been more urgent.

Visit the website.

Having laid the foundation in the creation of their brand platform & identity, we focused on designing a beautiful, modern website for The Bronx Conservatory of Music. Designed to help with the achievement of their goals, the site will allow them to continue recruiting the most enthusiastic students, as well as help further generate both financial and non-financial support for their cause.

Once the design and production files were ready, our development team started work on the site. Unfortunately, due to the wide reaching impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, we faced some unprecedented challenges that complicated our efforts. However, we are delighted to say that development is now back in full swing and we’re collaborating remotely to continue making progress once again!

The website that we are building for The Bronx Conservatory is an easy-to-use WordPress site that will make the maintenance of their content going forwards as effortless as possible. We’re very excited to be getting close to the launch!

In late December Peter Ross donated his talent (and his Saturday) to photograph the Conservatory faculty and board portraits. Beautiful and consistent portraiture was a mandate to establish a unique POV as one aspect of our recommended brand imagery. Our partners are helping make this one of the most robust packages we’ve been able to give.

In order to help further The Conservatory’s cause and to reach a wider audience, our BNB! partner, Tribe Pictures, has been generously contributing their time and expertise to create a compelling video.

“We love collaborating with IOP and when the opportunity arose to be part of Brand New Brand! we jumped on board. It’s been great for us to be able to use our art to tell a story about the important work that the BCM is doing for the Bronx, one of the most underserved communities in the country. 

“At Tribe Pictures we are currently doing a documentary on ‘Happiness’ and the scientific research says that in order to be happy you need to be of service. We know that’s really true.

“To work with our friends at IOP, to meet new friends at the Bronx Conservatory, and to practice our craft while in service to others makes us very happy indeed.”

— Vern Oakley, CEO, Tribe Pictures
— Matteo Banfo, Producer/Director, Tribe Pictures

Tribe’s hard work is still underway, but all will be unveiled alongside The Bronx Conservatory’s new brand and website — so watch this space!

With the visual identity design underway, we started work on the organization and communication of their website, through sitemaps and wireframes.

With no previous analytics to work from, we’re focused on how their website can support their mission, fundraising, and operations, as well as alleviating some of the labor-intensive manual work that they currently face.

This digital strategy is converging with our identity design efforts to take the project to the next level.

We dove deep with The Bronx Conservatory of Music to understand their values, aspirations and needs. Next, with the added expertise of BNB! partner Alex Reid from 2&2, we set to work developing their brand platform — positioning and messaging — before visualizing the brand itself. After encapsulating the approach, we set about the initial design.

We explored the visual identity, color palette, and typography in order to best to communicate the essence of the organization. We looked at the needs systematically, assessing how we’d apply the brand to all the various touchpoints.

We shared the brand platform and the strongest visual contenders with The Bronx Conservatory, getting alignment on the best way forward. After a spirited discussion, we all rallied around one approach and are now on our way to thinking about the website visual design and full brand expression!

Following a deep dive with The Bronx Conservatory of Music to understand their values, aspirations, and needs, IOP is currently in full swing. While students are off for the summer, IOP is working hard to develop the brand platform, visual identity, digital strategy and information architecture for the website.

We’re getting excited to share our progress with them soon!

We were delighted to attend The Bronx Conservatory of Music’s end of year recital. The event was a culmination of the hard work put in by students and faculty alike throughout the academic year, expressed in a joyful, musical celebration! It was a great chance to see the organization in action and the performance at the Gould Memorial Library Auditorium at Bronx Community College really brought the Conservatory to life as we get underway with our work.

We are thrilled to announce that The Bronx Conservatory of Music is our 2019 recipient! The Conservatory brings the gift of music to New York’s Bronx community by providing the highest quality instruction to children and adults at the lowest possible cost, in their own neighborhood. In doing so, this organization makes conservatory training accessible to all, helps develop audiences for fine music, and also contributes to the music culture in the borough.

Arts funding is always under threat, and in helping this small music school we are doing our part to support the arts ecosystem in New York by promoting cultural equity in the Bronx and helping to bring music — and all the benefits that a music education brings — to an underserved community.

We are very excited to get this new partnership underway!  🎶🎉

Today our three independent judges gathered for a 3 hour, deep dive — examining our 6 fantastic semi-finalists from every angle in an invigorating discussion!

All three of our experts brought insight and thought-provoking perspectives to the table that contributed to an invaluable conversation.

At the end of the day, our Judges whittled it down to 2 outstanding candidates and generated a fan of final, investigatory questions for each organization. These questions and this deeper dialogue with each finalist will provide the last information needed for IOP to name our 2019 Brand New Brand! recipient!

Having received a record number of applicants for our biennial pro bono initiative, we were excited to review the list of inspiring entrants with our IOP experts and generous BNB! partners in the first round of selection.

With so many fantastic causes and organizations meeting the criteria for a successful partnership, it was a difficult process but we narrowed the list to 6 amazing and deserving semi-finalists.

Next week, our independent Judges will come in for the final selection round. We can’t wait for their input, discussion and expertise to help us designate our 2019 recipient!

Our 2019 Brand New Brand! Judges

Rebecca Carrier

Rebecca Carriero currently oversees communications for Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Arts and Culture initiatives. In her role she works with local governments, cultural institutions, artists, and non-profits to promote the value of the arts.

She has also managed communications for the foundation’s public health, environment, education and government innovation programs. Previously, Rebecca worked for The Financial Times, Goldman Sachs and Parsons School of Design.

Rebecca holds an M.A. in Corporate Communications from the Weissman School of Arts and Sciences at Baruch College, where she graduated as the highest ranking member of the class. She also earned a B.A. in Liberal Arts and Journalism from The New School. Additionally, she is a CubaOne Foundation fellow, and member of the Cervantes Institute in New York.

Frank Mentesana

Frank Mentesana is the Founding-Director of EcoSpaces Education, the 2015 recipient of IOP’s Brand New Brand! pro bono branding initiative. EcoSpaces Education brings Food Literacy Education to students and communities through cooking, gardening, and healthy eating. EcoSpaces provides professional development to teachers and school administrators through its Growing Healthy Community Conferences and workshops. EcoSpaces’ newest initiative, the Mobile Food Lab, brings food education to schools via its mobile field trip classroom.

Brooklyn-based, Frank has worked in and around food for a long time. He was the founding owner of the renowned bakery/café Once Upon a Tart in Soho, New York City and is the author/photographer of Soups, Salads, Muffins and More (Knopf). His food styling, writing and photography have been seen in Martha Stewart, Food and Food, Delish.com, Kashi.com, Real Simple, The Washington Post, Woman’s Day, Edible Communities, TV and cookbooks. He is a consulting partner in the California restaurant group Locale 90 and he sits on the GrowNYC advisory committee.

Danielle Sachs

Denielle Sachs leads The Tembo Group, a social impact consultancy that advises a range of organizations, including companies, family offices, and nonprofits that are looking to build, enhance or launch a major social impact effort. She founded the company after seven years as the Director of Social Impact for McKinsey & Company, where she architected and led the firm’s first ever, global corporate citizenship strategy. She also built, launched and incubated McKinsey’s corporate foundation and its first program, which is committed to addressing global youth employment.

At Tembo, Denielle has built teams dedicated solely to leading good intentions to great ideas – moving initiatives from concept through to execution, launch and impact. Over the last two decades, she has built organizations, boards and coalitions from the ground up, designed culture and thought leadership strategies that ignite movements, and led special projects for Fortune 500 businesses. Denielle also serves as the part-time Executive Director of Blue Sphere Foundation, a nonprofit focused on safeguarding the planet’s oceans.