Young Photographers' Alliance (YPA)

YPA is a charity that helps young photographers get into the industry. The global foundation wanted a UK chapter and it needed a new brand identity and website.

  • Designer: Matt Hamilton

Creative & Art Direction - Business Development - Marketing & PR

UK Branch

American charity, The Young Photographers' Alliance (YPA), wanted to expand into Europe.  As a board member of the US charity, I was asked to start a chapter in the United Kingdom.  With no seed money, I established the foundation in the UK.  I assembled and chaired the UK Advisory Board, enlisting respected industry leaders including senior picture professionals from The Independent on Sunday, Condé Nast Traveller, Dare Digital, Alamy, and Metro Imaging. I secured sponsorship and partnership deals with major brands including Virgin Atlantic, Adobe, Fuji Film, Metro Imaging, Jacobs Digital Photo & Video, and Bowens Lighting.

REBRAND AND WEBSITE

The challenge was to create a new brand identity for YPA, that was modern and appealed to a young, creative audience in both Britain and the United States.

Rather than going for over-used photographic references, I wanted to emphasize the concept of “alliance” when creating the identity. The semi-translucent greyscale logo subtly alludes to photography while still feeling contemporary. The YPA website reinforces the modern, clean, cool identity.

STRATEGY & MARKETING

The foundation needed to find a way to generate some income. I conceived and delivered a membership initiative to help YPA UK raise additional funds. We marketed the paid membership scheme to 18–29 year old photographers, offering a range of benefits including discounts, industry standards information and advice from industry leaders (including videos that I directed, edited, and produced). With software engineer Sky Wilmott, I also developed and integrated photographic competition software.  The programme enabled entrants to upload competition images while allowing for remote judging and results tabulation.

EVENT PRODUCTION & PR

I curated, secured show sponsors, promoted, and project managed the production and launch of YPA UK’s inaugural show, “Raw Energy”, at the Hoxton Gallery in March 2012. The Evening Standard rated the show as one of their top five small photography exhibition picks. After the success of the first show, in January 2013 I curated and produced the exhibition "Home", which ran at top photographic gallery, Margaret St Gallery, in London. Sponsors included Fujifilm, Adobe, Metro Imaging, and Bowens Lighting.