Baltimore Mayor's Office

The University I attend has a student-based design agency known as the Mill Agency, and it is a semester long course working with real world clients. Our clients were members of the Mayor’s Office of Small Minority Business Advocacy & Development (SMBA&D). They are hosting a small business advancement conference in June 2026 and as part of the Design team, I helped come up with a logo and mockup deliverables for potential merch designs.

The first round of sketches was based on the client’s vision, which were logos that convey upward momentum and community connection. After meeting with the Mayor’s office, they decided to push for a city skyline that specifically featured city hall as one of the buildings, so I took this as a chance to experiment more with colors, having city hall be a dark blue that contrasted the brighter colors of the buildings in the background. I also applied my designs to different merch items, such as mugs, bags, and T-shirts. These were presented to the client and with their feedback I made my final iteration of the logo, featuring overlapping designs and a less stylized city hall.

This class gave me the opportunity to work with a real client, and through this I’ve gained a better understanding of what it’s like working with a design team for clients. It took a lot of collaborating and communication in order to produce effective designs for the clients. I also gained more experience in creating mockups and understanding their purpose in real client work.