Communication Design

In the early part of his career, Zia Khan founded Lucid Partners, a communication design firm that worked with senior leadership at major corporations as well as non-profit organizations to lead transformative brand initiatives. Following are a few examples of the work:

Coca-Cola Enterprises | In 1991 Coca-Cola Enterprises merged with the second largest beverage bottler to become the largest in North America. With this merger came a new management team with a new operational strategy.

A rebranding initiative was launched to communicate this new strategy to all stakeholders and to drive investor confidence. The objective of the rebranding was two-fold: Reflect the new decentralized management style while leveraging the powerful equity resident in the global Coca-Cola brand.

The resulting rebranding campaign which unfolded over 10+ years included a unified visual identity, new visual communication standards, and tools for investor communications.

Business strategy requires not just flawless execution, but also stellar communication to help all stakeholders understand, buy into, and act on a management team’s vision. In the period between the merger in 1991 through 1999 CCE grew its operations to cover 80% of the US distribution and share price saw a ~400% increase.

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Coca-Cola Scholars Foundation | Coca-Cola Scholars Foundation is the nation’s largest corporate-endowed college scholarship fund. The foundation awards about $3.5 million annually to 150 high-potential high schoolers towards a college education. Every year over 100,000 applications from young people across the country are reviewed for this prestigious award.

Over the past 15 years a communication strategy was designed and put into play to help the foundation communicate its mission to all its stakeholders through vivid stories of alumni journeys.

Today, in the world of philanthropy, Coca-Cola Scholars Foundation is recognized as one of the nation’s premier corporate scholarship – serving as a beacon for Coca-Cola’s commitment to corporate citizenship and social responsibility.

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Project Read | The US has one of the lowest literacy rates among developed nations. Low literacy leads to social and economic marginalization, and eventually to cycles of poverty, homelessness, crime and violence – and low literacy among working adults adds another dimension to this issue. Not being able to read well enough to fill out a job application, pass a driver’s license test, pay a utility bill, write a note to their child’s teacher, or read their child a bedtime story has a ripple effect on families, their communities, and the economy.

Business leaders estimate spending an average of $600 million per year on remedial reading, writing and math skills for employees. The US military spends on average $70 million annually for basic skills remediation for new recruits. In Atlanta alone there are nearly 900,000 adults, 28% of the metro area’s population, with low literacy skills.

The issue is huge but also largely invisible and misunderstood and Project Read is an organization committed to alleviating this problem. Through empathic and visual storytelling this campaign was able to get the attention of business leaders and influencers. It also helped increase unsolicited donations for Project Read by 15%.

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Miscellaneous Work