A Brand To Rise, Lead, and Succeed Into The Future: The YLI Story
A brand only works if it feels right to the people it’s for.
The Youth Leadership Institute of Erie (YLI) was facing two distinct challenges when they contacted Gem City Creative. Founder and CEO, Mr. Edison Nicholson, expressed the non-profit’s desire to attract young people to organizational offerings, while garnering interest from potential community sponsors.
In short, the brand needed to communicate its mission to two very different audiences.
For youth, the brand needed energy, relevance, and a voice that conveyed credibility.
For sponsors, it needed clarity, trust, and professionalism while demonstrating the transformative power of YLI’s programming.
For the organization as a whole to grow, the brand needed to inspire both audiences while helping them believe in the mission.
One Mission, Two Audiences
YLI exists to empower high school students to rise above generational poverty and become self-sustaining, contributing citizens. Founded in 2009, YLI connects students in grades 8 to 12 with leadership training, mentorship, service-learning opportunities, and individualized success plans.
But the existing brand wasn’t doing the mission justice.
It felt dated, lacking clarity and unable to flex between the cultural needs of young adults and sponsors.
The goal wasn’t just a visual refresh, it was alignment.
The new logo reimagines YLI as students rising toward success.
The Strategy: Create a Brand With Flexibility
At GCC, we believe strong brands don’t pick sides. They adapt without losing their core.
During our initial engagement with YLI, we developed mood boards, inspired by street culture: textures, typography, and visual cues that felt authentic and aspirational to young people. This phase helped establish the emotional tone of the brand before a single logo was touched.
Once the tone was right, we shifted to the most important work: distilling the message.
CEO, Edison Nicholson, summed up our efforts as:
“A brand message that could be understood in seconds.”
That quest to build and maintain clarity was the foundation for our efforts.
Campaign Tag Development
Gem City helped YLI arrive at three distinct words that captured the essence of the programs aspirations for youth participants. Topics included:
Personal growth
Leadership development
Long-term success
We arrived at “Lead. Rise Succeed”. This message became the connective tissue across every touchpoint from youth-facing materials to sponsorship brochures - ensuring consistency while allowing room for visual variation.
Simplifying the story until only what mattered remained.
The Execution: One Identity, Two Expressions
With the message locked in, we created:
Youth-forward visuals with bold energy and cultural relevance
A cleaner, more business-oriented expression that maintained the same brand DNA while communicating clearly to sponsors and partners
The result was a brand system that could flex without fracturing.
Elements We Delivered
Logo revamp
Messaging overhaul
Business card design
Flyer design
Youth brochure
Sponsorship brochure
Each piece reinforced YLI’s important community-centric mission, spoken in just the right language for each target audience.
Impact: Clarity To Confidence
YLI’s work already creates measurable outcomes:
Increased graduation rates
Improved GPA
Reduced suspensions
Stronger workforce readiness
The brand now reflects that impact.
For YLI’s sponsors, clarity matters. Financial investment in YLI from individual and corporate donors directly supports leadership development, mentorship, and pathways that help dismantle the school-to-prison pipeline, creating long-term benefits for Erie County as a whole.
The revamped materials and brand that Gem City Creative delivered enabled the Youth Leadership Institute of Erie to inspire new program participants, while showcasing the appeal of sponsoring YLI’s efforts to potential sponsors. Their new, succinct, and clear message enabled YLI to deliver on their vision and mission to see youth empowered to rise from a generation of poverty to self-sustaining and contributing citizens, while connecting high school students with vital resources geared around servant leadership.
The Takeaway
Great branding isn’t about choosing between energy or professionalism.
It’s about creating a system that can speak effectively to all parties.
When your brand has clarity, your mission is unlocked and your impact can expand like never before.
Are you curious to know what a brand refresh can do for your company? Send us a message and let’s chat about it!