The Gap Foundation

Training Materials for Youth Internship Program

To launch the Gap Foundation’s pilot retail training program for at-risk youth, we created an identity and a set of supporting materials that are both visually appealing and highly usable. The materials created for “This Way Ahead”–a participant booklet, facilitator guide, and poster–illustrate our belief in design with purpose.

Before starting to design, we sought to better understand the target audiences for these materials through research and interviews with the Gap team and other community based organizations (CBOs). This understanding helped to ensure that what we ultimately designed was appropriate and effective.

While all three items had to share a distinct, branded look and feel, each item had audience-specific requirements. The booklet–developed for 16 to 18 year olds currently enrolled in after school programs run by CBOs–had to include images and language that would keep them engaged during the initial training session.

Since the program facilitators would be youth workers from the CBOs and Gap managers, the facilitator guide had to be extremely accessible to people who were not professional teachers. The poster had to spark Gap employees’ interest in the new program and encourage them to volunteer as mentors.

For the participant booklet, we took a more “street” approach to create a look and feel that was professional yet non-corporate. To tailor the program to its youth audience, we helped the Gap team rewrite the booklet (initially called “The Signature Program”) and renamed it “This Way Ahead.”

For the facilitator guide, we developed a system of templates and icons to identify the different types of information to be presented. To further improve the guide’s usability, we worked closely with the Gap team to develop additional content and a modular system that facilitators could easily navigate.

The in-store launch posters were screen-printed to provide a deliberate Arts and Crafts feel that would distinguish them from the typical Gap marketing materials. Knowing that the program’s participants and Gap employees would appreciate consideration for the environment, all collateral was printed on 100% recycled paper from post-consumer waste.

The Gap Foundation has commended us for our thoughtful, collaborative approach, and for delivering a comprehensive design solution. Since This Way Ahead launched in May 2007 in New York, the Foundation has engaged Manmade to design advertising for Gap’s co-sponsorship of the San Francisco AIDS walk.