It’s the spring of 2025 and AI has exploded onto the scene, influencing global businesses at every level. The people at Playlab, however, saw a different opportunity for impact: they created a platform to change education by enabling teachers and students to build for their own needs using the power of AI.

Playlab wasn’t telling their most powerful stories. The opportunity to make a transformative impact on education is obvious when you talk to its founders, but far less evident when interacting with their existing website. When Playlab learned it had the opportunity to pitch some of the world’s largest funders, they recognized the need to better communicate the change-making nature of their work, and quickly.

In under 30 days, Black Sheep and Playlab partnered to overhaul the visual brand, redesign key website pages and reimagine how their tech and community impact are communicated. To get there, we immersed ourselves in the platform—interviewing users, exploring tools and developing case studies and video testimonials that spotlight real educators and the transformative power of Playlab’s AI in the classroom.

Black Sheep based our website design on the same concept as Playlab’s platform: the joy and excitement of digital creation. An all-new bank of custom illustration and iconography lent playfulness to the experience, while chunky headlines and subtle animations like flashing cursors and overlapping shapes highlighted the fun inherent in the product.

Child Care Providers United (CCPU) is a union dedicated to advocating for California’s child care providers, a workforce predominantly of women of color who play an essential yet often undervalued role in supporting families and the economy. This fearless org ensures child care providers have a voice in state-level policy, championing a thriving wage, comprehensive benefits and improved working conditions for these frontline caregivers. 

With a major election looming, CCPU needed a website that excites and informs their community, showcasing their mission and mobilizing supporters. Their existing site was difficult for the team to manage and lacked clear, action-oriented spaces for member engagement and campaign support.

We helped develop a vibrant, user-friendly website design that embodies CCPU’s values and mission and a Wordpress back-end that is easy to update and tailored for engagement. The website design prioritizes storytelling and action, making it simple for members and allies to stay informed, take action and connect with CCPU’s campaigns and initiatives. 

For over 25 years, DC CAP has been a vital resource in bridging the educational opportunity gap and empowering students to access and afford college education. They work to disrupt the cycle of poverty by empowering students and their families to pursue their college education with little to no debt.

The DC CAP repositioning and rebrand challenged us to honor the organization's rich yet insular history, while preparing for a bold future marked by their 2024 announcement of a 2050 moonshot goal. This ambitious vision to serve more students and increase grant funding required a brand transformation that paid homage to the past, aligned with the future and embodied the heart, grit, and energy of the youth they serve. 

Students in Washington D.C. need to know that, no matter what, they can do this. This brand encourages D.C. as a whole to become cheerleaders and champions for students. Together we celebrate their achievements, hype them up for college and make sure they can take pride in their hometown.

Results

Not only did the bond proposition pass—promising millions in parks funding—but we delivered millions more impressions in each phase than we expected, absolutely smashing all expectations for the campaign.

Joy, growth and tons of outdoor fun.

Houston’s parks are a point of pride for our whole city. That’s why we helped the Houston Parks Board mobilize Harris County voters around a bond proposition that would fund bigger and better greenspace for all.

Process and Strategy

To catch attention, this campaign had to come straight from the heart. Where many digital ads cut straight to the point, we started with subtler messages about loving parks and re-targeted specific audiences, building up to that “Vote YES!” message over time.

Creative

In true DIY spirit, our own Black Sheep team and loved ones starred in our content, expanding the visual identity beyond their current brand and ensuring the campaign felt user-generated. We saved on costs and created a campaign that was vibrant and organic—a real win-win scenario.

Visuals - Phase 1

The first phase showed a diverse range of activities with a theme of joy, growth and outdoor fun.

Visuals - Phase 2

The second phase built on that visual language, adding a direct call-to-action without feeling jarring or separate.

Results

Not only did the bond proposition pass—promising millions in parks funding—but we delivered millions more impressions in each phase than we expected, absolutely smashing all expectations for the campaign.

With a new logo and visual identity system backed by research, we're proud to help Texana Center move into a new era and embrace their role as experts and leaders in behavioral healthcare.

Texana is a 501(c)3 nonprofit with a long history of providing crucial, trauma-informed behavioral and mental healthcare services across five counties. They asked us to modernize their brand into something more accessible, timeless and welcoming.

Many of their peers in the behavioral healthcare field had outdated and similar brand systems. We balanced consistency with fresh energy to make Texana stand apart, but ensure it was crystal clear they still provided the same crucial services.

We audited Texana’s current messaging and chatted with leadership to understand their organization. With industry research and cultural trends, we found that Texana is a visionary thought leader that helps clients clear their path forward with care and next-level support.

We developed a brand system centered around the idea of clarity. Their new logo and visual identity convey strength and movement, with typography that’s both friendly and confident.

The different parts of the “T” mark symbolize the various departments of Texana coming together as one unified organization. Finally, the cool-toned colors and upbeat photography go hand-in-hand with messaging that positions Texana as an expert and helping hand.

With a new logo and visual identity system backed by research, we're proud to help Texana Center move into a new era and embrace their role as experts and leaders in behavioral healthcare.

We’re grateful for the chance to support the Project HOMES team and their groundbreaking work—because people shouldn’t have to choose between their basic needs and their recovery. 

Project HOMES is a first-of-its-kind study—and the nation’s largest—seeking to understand how housing and medication can support recovery from opioid use. We built them a warm, welcoming brand identity that matched their passion and deep care for people in recovery.

We spoke with recovery housing managers, who told us firsthand that people taking medication for their recovery face stigma within that community as well as beyond it. Due to that, they are often excluded from the“typical” recovery process. Together, we agreed: if addiction looks different for everyone, recovery should too.

Community makes recovery less isolating. That’s what inspired the Project HOMES brand, especially the logo’s theme of conversation and safe shelter. The warm colors and rounded edges create a welcoming, cozy environment.

We developed a messaging strategy and internal guide to support housing managers and ensure every touchpoint felt connected. The language is both compassionate and evidence-based, with a down-to-earth tone that’s still firm. 

We also designed collateral to bring the compassionate feeling of the brand into the homes themselves, making the space feel inviting and personal.

We collaborated on building a website to reach the broader recovery community, with additional email and social media assets to grow their online presence.

We’re grateful for the chance to support the Project HOMES team and their groundbreaking work—because people shouldn’t have to choose between their basic needs and their recovery. 

Planting the Seeds

Plant it Forward will forever inhabit a special place in Houston. We’re excited to see them grow their CSA and allow many more people to taste their amazing harvests that support their remarkable local farmers. In the meantime, we’ll be rooting for them over a big salad bowl of their delicious arugula.

A PSA on CSA

Plant It Forward brings a vibrant, global mix of produce to tables across the Houston area—straight from sustainable urban farms run by former refugees. Their farm share program needed a boost in awareness and fresh visuals to provide fertile ground for growth and scale.

Props to Big Dipper Creative for their great logo work!

The Challenge

We needed to help Plant It Forward reach and keep new CSA member audiences. Sometimes folks joined and stumbled, wondering what to do with that veggie they’d never heard of in their farm box. Our challenge was to build a marketing strategy and collateral that helped gain new farm share supporters and retain existing memberships.

Our Solution

While Plant it Forward offers more pickup spots than any other farm share in the city in some of Houston’s favorite bars, restaurants and bodegas, our secret shopping uncovered that the pick-up experience wasn't as easy and consistent as it could be. We created eye-catching signage to draw attention and help CSA members find their veggie shares. Produce guides, postcards and swag pieces were also developed to help members learn how to use their pickups and feel connected to their local suppliers.

Our strategy focused
on 3 objectives

1. Refine the membership experience by treating members to lots of communication and extras that foster community and belonging.

2. Fine-tune the market and pick-up experience with consistency, education and wayfinding signage.

3. Encourage fearless cooking with fun, educational digital content.

Planting the Seeds

Plant it Forward will forever inhabit a special place in Houston. We’re excited to see them grow their CSA and allow many more people to taste their amazing harvests that support their remarkable local farmers. In the meantime, we’ll be rooting for them over a big salad bowl of their delicious arugula.

Many thanks to Big Oak Tree Media, Strike Marketing and Ivan Cortez for helping Houston kids reach new heights.

In the midst of a global pandemic, Good Reason Houston made free pre-K feel like a path to success for families under immense pressure. With a vibrant, collaborative, evolving campaign — accessible to parents, exciting for kids — we saw enrollment numbers increase across nine districts.

Good Reason Houston had an ambitious goal: to get back to pre-COVID enrollment numbers in just three years. Parents were dealing with a million issues at once. Districts were facing uncertainty. Despite the chaos, we stayed curious and learned something big: that free pre-K programs across the region are high-quality, family-centered and can prepare kids for a better education through the rest of their life.

We did more than refresh the campaign. We made it fun. We kept it inclusive, accessible and as joyful as childhood itself. We put families’ changing needs first, evolving our campaign over time based on current events and changing priorities. We made creative toolkits for districts and shared our learnings with other local organizations.

At the core of this campaign is a trusted partnership. Good Reason Houston was shown to be a leader and connector between districts, communities and organizations like Families Empowered. One year into the work, we’ve laid a stable foundation for more experimentation and collaboration—so more children, from any background, can Go Somewhere!

Many thanks to Big Oak Tree Media, Strike Marketing and Ivan Cortez for helping Houston kids reach new heights.

For 100 years, the League of Women Voters of Houston has championed the education and rights of voters of all genders, ages, races and socio-economic backgrounds. Our re-brand of this impactful organization better showcases its diversity and vibrant community involvement.

Here at Black Sheep, we all already know what makes Downtown Houston so great. So how do you create an engagement campaign that helps people embrace their love for their hometown? We needed to shift our thinking from Downtown as a place, to Downtown as an entity with BIG personality. All the imperfection, the wildness, the uniqueness and the weirdness. The Meet Downtown campaign builds a personality that reflects these qualities, and asks Houstonians to embrace their affinity for Downtown: more love, more pride, more people who want to be there. We don’t love Downtown Houston because it is perfect. We love it because it is ours.

Smart community outreach was at the heart of this campaign—from connecting community groups with translated toolkits to student engagement campaigns that add clarity and excitement around on-campus voting centers.

Millions of Harris County voters entered into a new era of voting thanks to the Harris County Clerk's Office polling place program. Our #voteYOURway engagement and awareness campaign connected with hard-to-reach-voters to let them know that they can now vote wherever, whenever and with whomever they want.

To support the convenience of this new way of voting, we partnered with the data scientists at January Advisors to launch voter support tools that made it easy to find a nearby polling location via the Harris County Poll Finder, a textbot and Facebook Messenger chatbot. A syndicated polling place map helped media and community partners spread the word, while a 'Your Vote Counts' dashboard educated curious voters on just how their vote matters in every election.

Smart community outreach was at the heart of this campaign—from connecting community groups with translated toolkits to student engagement campaigns that add clarity and excitement around on-campus voting centers.

After celebrating their first year, we supported Good Reason Houston by designing their first Harris County Scorecard, to visualize data on how our students are performing.

Houston’s future is dependent on the quality of education we provide to our students today. A group of Houston's leaders came together to envision a new future for Houston's education. From that Good Reason Houston was born. To ensure that our communities rallied around their work, we built a multi-layered brand and digital strategy that could serve as a storytelling tool for them.

Starting with their logo, the brand provides a framework to demonstrate all the good reasons why this work is so critical. It connected the dots between community needs, data, and research to create strategies to improve our struggling education system.

After celebrating their first year, we supported Good Reason Houston by designing their first Harris County Scorecard, to visualize data on how our students are performing.

When the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco wanted to supercharge their team of thousands, we crafted "You Are Here," an employee handbook and campaign that bottled up what motivates their team and helped them stand out as an employer of choice in a competitive San Francisco hiring market. (Google who?) The campaign really struck a chord with Fed employees... or maybe it was just the free dollar.

The idea for "You Are Here" was sparked by something a real Fed employee said during our discovery process, and it's on the first page of the booklet: "The dollar in your pocket has value because of the work done by the Fed." The work of Fed employees in San Francisco impacts the world's economy. You're not just working for the Fed; you're working for people all over the globe.

Better Make Room says that students reaching toward higher education deserve equal praise and adoration. Through surprising integration of celebrities we lift up and give achievement to students and the spotlight they so greatly deserve. With initiatives like #CollegeSigningDay, we've brought together 100+ celebrities, celebrated thousands of students at 9,531 events nationwide and consistently reached millions of impressions each year.

Over 4.2 billion #BetterMakeRoom impressions and 11.5 million engagements later, we've seen thousands of students take the first step toward realizing their higher-ed dreams. Because saying things out loud makes them happen.

In 2015, we teamed up with the Office of Public Engagement to support Mrs. Obama’s Reach Higher initative. We needed to build on the great stakeholder relationships Reach Higher had built, and carve out a place for just Generation-Z. A generation that’s grown up in a post-911/post-recession world, that’s witnessed traditional choices do not always guarantee success and that’s observed the struggles of Millennials and has resolved to do things differently.

We needed to give Gen-Z a creative space, inspire them to build their own community and find ways to amplify their mindset. In hopes of igniting a movement. Better Make Room gives voice to that generation. It celebrates their achievements and acknowledges things are not easy. It elevates their hard work to new heights. It tells their stories through a lens normally reserved for celebrities and give them a space to not only speak their dreams but encourage each other.

Better Make Room says that students reaching toward higher education deserve equal praise and adoration. Through surprising integration of celebrities we lift up and give achievement to students and the spotlight they so greatly deserve. With initiatives like #CollegeSigningDay, we've brought together 100+ celebrities, celebrated thousands of students at 9,531 events nationwide and consistently reached millions of impressions each year.

Michelle Obama wants more first-generation college-goers to have the support they need, and that means championing everyone in students' corners—from parents to school counselors to foundations and admissions staff. The Reach Higher brand was a project near and dear to our hearts, and we worked to create a versatile, flexible design system that empowers staff and stakeholders all over the country to craft the materials they need to make an impact in students' journeys to college.

When the researchers at UTHealth School of Public Health contacted us about a citywide campaign for LARC (long-acting reversible contraception), we jumped in with full hearts. Birth control is only one of many decisions facing women. It’s a very personal decision, and not one you can easily make without help—so we created the Own Every Piece campaign.

Vibrant bursts of color symbolize all of life’s complicated pieces being tossed victoriously into the air. It’s about women taking ownership of their stories, their bodies and their choices.

Birth control is a topic laden with cultural pitfalls. Messaging had to come from women with real experience that our audience trusted while balancing approachability with medical expertise.

Building a robust collection of compelling images and video assets inclusive of all types of women, we developed an integrated communications strategy that started a movement in Houston.

Instagram ads led to a microsite with information, video testimonials and an interactive clinic map.

We worked with a diverse group of influencers to embed the Own Every Piece message even deeper into the community.

Together, we've reached over 600,000 Houston women, engaged leaders all over the community and sparked hundreds of conversations about birth control and reproductive health.

To connect with new and existing audiences, we created two digital campaigns that focused on the real stories of the Harbor’s children and alumni. Development of the campaigns included concept, production of assets and videos, fleshing out of content calendars, deployment of social advertising as well as email marketing to support. Following the launch of both campaigns the organization saw a 300% increase in traffic to their volunteer page, a 300% increase in donation traffic and a 100% increase in social media reach and impressions. This is one of many ways we're working with Today's Harbor to broaden their awareness.

In a field dominated by big names and a perpetual state of charity, Black Sheep needed to differentiate Boys and Girls Harbor in more ways than one. In 2017, we renamed and rebranded the organization and have remained in partnership to develop and rollout an integrated marketing and communications plan to reposition them among their peers.

The Today's Harbor brand employs a simple and geometric design. The paper boat is symbolic of childhood, optimism and possibility and the lean yet textural logo speaks to the structure the organization brings to the lives of children. The nautical theme is a nod to the harbor locale of the nonprofit. The combination of youthful, basic shapes, strong type and the romantic, adventure theme make the logo and brand appropriate for the range of ages at Today’s Harbor for Children as well as the adults who support the children and the organization.

To connect with new and existing audiences, we created two digital campaigns that focused on the real stories of the Harbor’s children and alumni. Development of the campaigns included concept, production of assets and videos, fleshing out of content calendars, deployment of social advertising as well as email marketing to support. Following the launch of both campaigns the organization saw a 300% increase in traffic to their volunteer page, a 300% increase in donation traffic and a 100% increase in social media reach and impressions. This is one of many ways we're working with Today's Harbor to broaden their awareness.

People have always protested and marched—for rights, for equality, for things they believe in. One protest sign that has been present for all this strife is the one that reads “I am human.” When we want to remove barriers, we talk about our humanity, our common ground. This campaign for nonprofit BakerRipley is called HUMAN.

In the sixties, activists proclaimed “I am a man.” When love won, activists said, “I feel more human today than I have in a long time.” This was the seed of the idea for HUMAN. When people in many decades keep adopting the same central theme, that’s because the theme has power. Talking about our humanity, our common ground, has power.

That’s because “HUMAN” is a simple statement, but it’s really more than that: It is a universal truth, immediately recognizable, that connects strangers in an instant. It draws the simplest possible line between two people. “You” and “them” becomes “us.”

The HPV vaccine helps prevent cancer, but talking about it is hard. Despite the best efforts from experts in public health, it still lags behind other vaccines in coverage rates. That's why we developed All for Them for a team of incredible women at UTHealth who provide mobile vaccination clinics at HISD middle schools.

Parents do so much for their kids, making sure they have all they need to thrive. The All For Them campaign plays up the idea of complete and holistic health while acknowledging parents' efforts to provide their children with all, not just some, of the things they need on a day-to-day basis.

Our challenge was to change the conversation from one that addresses the challenges associated with HPV too quickly or disregards them entirely, to one that empathizes with parents and empowers them to make the best choices for their families.

In a completely original, unusual, photo-centric campaign, “What Leaders Look Like:” positions student photos and student quotes to function as interactive headlines. We also pitched that The Fay School be the first and only school in the Houston area to install a Smilebooth on campus and use it to capture GIFs, videos and photos of the Fay Family to use for social content and campaign materials.

At Fay, students aren’t just sharp, they’re emotionally intelligent and they know what it means to be a leader at an early age. At Fay, students are ready to take on the day and whatever comes their way. They share, they tell their stories, they speak their mind and they lead younger students through the journey to become the students they’re meant to be. And if there’s one thing the world needs more of, it’s smart, passionate, articulate young people ready to lead. A place so special deserved a campaign as equally special. We wanted to show the Houston community What Leaders Look Like.

The What Leaders Look Like campaign centers on the stories of the unique, the optimistic and the inspiring things Fay students are doing and saying. It showcases student experiences visually, using GIFs and videos to illustrate the kinetic energy each story brings. This campaign embodies what Fay does best: empowering students to achieve everything they put their mind to—to be leaders in the now, while looking toward the future. The What Leaders Look Like campaign cultivates an environment of showcasing what a true leader looks like.

In a completely original, unusual, photo-centric campaign, “What Leaders Look Like:” positions student photos and student quotes to function as interactive headlines. We also pitched that The Fay School be the first and only school in the Houston area to install a Smilebooth on campus and use it to capture GIFs, videos and photos of the Fay Family to use for social content and campaign materials.

From Tesla to Google to Pepsi, huge brands are jumping on board to support this national project of nonprofit Invest Outside. Outside I Can is a movement for everyone, and it's all about cultivating love for the great outdoors to improve our national health. We built a logo that works in two ways: as a logo, and as a community engagement piece that calls out for everyone to tell their stories about being outside.

270,000 veterans call Houston home, and 5,000 more arrive each year. Combined Arms exists to unite veterans and our community to accelerate their impact in Houston. They called on us to develop a brand and identity worthy of their mission. Beginning with a memorable logo that tells a story, our work rallied civilians into service for veterans.

Four weeks to create one big event. That’s the charge we undertook when we signed on to help Mrs. Obama’s When We All Vote initiative host a voter registration rally in Houston. In partnership with Chris Paul of the Houston Rockets and the League of Women Voters of Houston, we gathered a group of registrars and citizens to encourage voting around our city.

ILEAD, a teen leadership program from Interfaith Ministries, combines youth of different religious and cultural backgrounds for discussion, debate, awareness and acts of service. The logo, a series of the letter "i," combines the participation of the individual and their viewpoint with the power of the group and its passion for mutual and respectful debate.