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Voices of Mahomet
This collaborative project between the Mahomet Area Chamber of Commerce (MACC) and SCAD was completed as part of DMGT-732 Facilitating Creative Thinking. Our work followed a four-phase approach: Stakeholder Research, Brand Diagnostics, Co-Creation Workshops, and a final Roadmap & Recommendation. Across these phases, we focused on strengthening MACC’s brand presence, clarifying its narrative, and improving communication with local businesses and community members. Using creative facilitation, research, and strategic thinking, we transformed MACC’s needs into opportunities across branding, campaign development, and website improvements, helping them communicate more effectively, attract new members, and deliver greater value to their community.
Project Overview
Roles
Branding Lead & Design Researcher
Workshop Avatar & Facilitator
Team
A cohort of 17 students from Graphic Design,
Design Management, Sustainability, and Industrial Design.
Duration
10 weeks
Hands-on Facilitation
listening, guiding & creating together
Project Overview
The Mahomet Area Chamber of Commerce (MACC) partnered with SCAD to strengthen its brand presence, improve outreach, and better communicate with the 200+ local businesses it serves. After a recent restructure, MACC sought clearer branding, stronger member engagement, and a more user-friendly digital presence, but faced challenges with outdated guidelines, inconsistent messaging, and limited website usability. In this project, I worked as a Design Researcher, Facilitator, and Branding Lead, helping uncover stakeholder insights, guide collaborative workshops, and lead the rebranding direction to create clearer narratives, more cohesive visuals, and strategic recommendations that support MACC’s long-term growth.
Project Roadmap
Discovery and
Research
Brand Diagnostics Workshop
Co-Creation Workshops
Roadmap and Recommendations
Discovery & Stakeholder Research
Our discovery phase began with a thorough review and audit of all materials provided by MACC including organizational charts, event listings, past reports, membership information, and communication assets. These inputs grounded our understanding of MACC’s structure, mission, and operating context.
Using this desk research, we mapped the broader stakeholder ecosystem to understand how the Chamber interacts with leadership, local businesses, residents, visitors, and collaborators. This helped us identify both strengths such as strong community visibility and gaps related to digital engagement, differentiation, and value communication.
After studying the 4Cs framework (Client, Customers, Competitors, Collaborators), we synthesized our findings through a suite of mapping tools. These visual frameworks allowed us to chart influence, cooperation potential, issue intensity, and relationship strength, ultimately painting a full 360° picture of who drives Mahomet and where MACC can expand its reach, strengthen partnerships, and amplify its impact in the region.
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Visual Frameworks
ERAF Map
A system-level view of how MACC exchanges value, influence, collaboration across events, communication and economic opportunity.
Stakeholder Engagement Map
A quadrant-based map showing how different stakeholders relate to MACC based on cooperation potential and issue intensity, guiding tailored strategies.
Stakeholder Proximity Map
A visual snapshot of how closely MACC is connected to its key stakeholders, highlighting the strength and depth of its community relationships.
Brand Diagnostics Workshop
The Brand Diagnostics Workshop (BDW) was designed to uncover how MACC’s brand is currently perceived, where it falls short, and what opportunities exist for growth. The workshop brought together MACC clients to build a shared understanding of the Chamber’s current brand position. Through interactive exercises, participants reflected on strengths, challenges, and aspirations, helping us identify areas where the brand could evolve to better serve the community and communicate its value.
The workshop highlighted key themes such as the need for greater brand clarity, stronger community trust, and more effective communication of MACC’s value to local businesses.
Why We Conducted It
The BDW helped MACC step back and honestly assess its brand in the context of changing community needs and business expectations. It surfaced what the brand does well, where it struggles, and which opportunities can make MACC more relevant. The insights generated here would inform future decisions around branding, communication, digital engagement, and member outreach.
Participants
The workshop included MACC representatives Lauren and Jennifer, who shared firsthand perspectives on member needs, chamber operations, and local community dynamics.
My Role in the Workshop
As the Workshop Avatar, my role was to actively guide Lauren and Jennifer through each activity, prompting deeper reflection, demonstrating how exercises worked, and helping them articulate insights when they felt stuck. I ensured the session flowed smoothly and remained productive without imposing my own opinions or biases. Though I had extensive secondary research knowledge, I intentionally held back personal interpretations to avoid influencing their responses. Instead, I focused on drawing out authentic perspectives from the clients, enabling us to capture clearer, richer insights that genuinely represented MACC’s lived experience.
Workshop Roadmap
Insight Synthesis & Focus Areas
The workshop surfaced a wide range of observations and opportunities from MACC’s stakeholders. We organized these insights through affinity mapping, clustering recurring themes to understand the Chamber’s most pressing needs. From ten initial themes, we evaluated impact vs. effort and identified six focus areas that offered the strongest balance of immediate wins and long-term strategic value.
O1
Communication
O2
Brand
Enhancement
O3
Operations
O4
Small Business
Campaigns
O5
Value
Proposition
O6
User
Experience
Key Opportunities
O1
Branding
Through Branding Refresh, we aim to establish trust.
The identified opportunity is to “Redefine MACC’s brand to build stronger recognition, inspire trust, and clearly communicate why MACC matters for local businesses.”
O2
Website
Through the website, we aim to
build access.
The identified opportunity is to “Transform MACC’s website into inviting, effective tools that showcase member benefits, encourage participation, and reinforce the Chamber’s leadership.”
O3
Campaign
Through this campaign, we aim to amplify the voice of members.
The identified opportunity is to “Create a vibrant, community-focused campaign that celebrates Mahomet’s businesses, drives participation, and reinforces MACC’s role as the essential connector.”
Brand Diagnostics Workshop
The Co-Creation Workshops were designed to bring MACC’s community voices directly into the rebranding process, ensuring the Chamber’s future direction was shaped not by assumptions but by their actual needs. These sessions created a collaborative activity space where stakeholders could share perspectives, validate challenges, and co-design solutions across branding, website experience, and community outreach.
By grounding each opportunity in stakeholder input, the workshops ensured that our recommendations were actionable and reflective of the people MACC represents.
Why We Conducted It
The co-creation workshops were designed to collaboratively shape the opportunities identified during the Brand Diagnostics phase. Instead of re-discovering needs, these sessions brought together MACC clients, members, and community partners to co-design solutions that aligned with their lived experiences.
Participants
To capture a wide range of perspectives, we invited a blend of stakeholders, including MACC leadership, board members, small business owners, residents, and civic partners.
Branding
To build a brand identity with Mahomet, not just for it. This workshop invited stakeholders to shape a visual and verbal language that reflects the town’s values, aspirations, and future vision.
To collaboratively design a website that truly feels like Mahomet, clear, welcoming, and intuitive for residents, visitors, and businesses, while grounding every decision in community needs and identity.
Website
Campaign
To co-create a campaign & social strategy that feels genuinely Mahomet: real, local, and shaped by the people it represents, ensuring every story & message comes from the community, not just about it.
My Role in the Workshop
As the Branding Lead and facilitator, I guided participants through the workshop activities, clarified prompts, and helped translate their ideas into clear branding insights. I ensured discussions stayed focused, captured authentic community input, and shaped the direction for MACC’s refreshed brand identity.
Strategic Recommendations
Building on the insights and outcomes of the Co-Creation Workshops, this section outlines the strategic recommendations developed by each of the three project teams. While the co-creation process was generative, capturing stakeholder input, ideas, and aspirations, this stage focuses on translating those insights into clear, actionable roadmaps and deliverables that will guide MACC’s brand transformation.
Each team focused on a distinct dimension of the Chamber’s identity and presence:
Branding
Strengthening MACC’s identity by creating a cohesive, authentic brand system that reflects Mahomet’s spirit and ensures consistent, recognizable communication across all touchpoints.
01
Brand Audit
Building a fact-based foundation by combining competitive benchmarking, stakeholder feedback, and visual analysis to identify what to preserve, refine, or replace .
O2
Brand Refresh
Updating the logo and strengthening the brand foundation by refining mission, vision, and values to ensure alignment with the Village’s identity and future direction.
03
Brand Guidelines
Providing a practical toolkit of guidelines that unifies the brand philosophy, visual and verbal narrative of MACC, ensuring consistent application across every touchpoint.
Website
Elevating MACC’s online presence by building a cohesive, accessible, website system that aligns content, clarifies navigation and creates a reliable, user friendly digital experience
01
UX Audit
The UX audit evaluates MACC’s website to identify issues in navigation, accessibility, and usability. It provides recommendations making the site intuitive and engaging.
O2
Information Architecture
Information architecture structures content logically to match user needs, creating clear navigation that improves discoverability, consistency, and overall user engagement.
Campaign
Making MACC more visible and community centered by transforming everyday moments, local stories and events into consistent, shareable experiences across digital and physical touchpoints
01
Social Media Playbook
This Playbook is MACC’s guide to creating consistent, authentic, and engaging content. It streamlines posting, saves time, and helps everyone share stories that reflect our values.
O2
Engagement Toolkit
Updating the logo and strengthening the brand foundation by refining mission, vision, and values to ensure alignment with the Village’s identity and future direction.
03
Idea Box
This is MACC’s go-to source for quick, creative, and community-driven ideas. It saves time, boosts engagement, and keeps campaigns fresh ensuring MACC always stays visible.
Synthesis & Reflection
A community-centered, strategically coordinated process that unified MACC’s brand, website, and campaign into a clear, cohesive system grounded in Mahomet’s spirit.
This project demonstrated how research, co-creation, and structured collaboration can transform fragmented experiences into a unified, meaningful system. It highlighted the importance of aligning teams, simplifying complexity, and designing with community voices at the core to create solutions that are both strategic and human-centered.
Ishita Banati
+1 912 (272) 6584
ishitabanati.work@gmail.com
Savannah, Georgia
© 2026 by Ishita Banati. Created on Wix Studio.
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