MAKE DESIGN MATTER
in our version of humanitarianism, the love of design hooks up with desire to make a difference—and packs waterproof mascara for the ride.
“something magical happens when you contribute. it creates purpose, presence and an overwhelming sense of connection and gratification that sticks to your soul. it’s the good gooey stuff—and it’s addictive.”
- PROjECT. founder + visionary, aimee wertepny
aimee’s words are taped, embedded and tattoo-ed onto our consciousness at PROjECT. and the feeling is contagious: our clients and industry partners have supported, donated, volunteered + made some fly posters for the fan club.
mentoring is where it all started for our fearless leader, and everything changed the second she met malik, our ambassador of cool, younger brother + bona fide inspiration. they met in 2005 through tutoring chicago and have been soul siblings ever since. [a trek to tanzania together marked his start at howard university as a gates millenium scholar. #proudmoment.]
we helped fundraise to build our first school in tanzania in 2007. fast-forward and a fabu client introduced us to the work of buildon, an organization that builds schools in rural communities around the world, alongside inner-city youth from the U.S, so on PROjECT.’s 10th birthday in 2015, we united with a remote jungle village and built a second school in Nicaragua, and another in Nepal in 2019.
without fail, these kids steal our hearts and touch our souls—and now they have a place to read, write, connect + dream. we trashed our manis getting dirty; tying rebar, leveling earth, hauling, laughing, crying, loving, sweating bullets and creating bonds beyond words. and it was glorious. true story; the PROjECT. tribe lugged eight suitcases of school supplies to the base of mount kilimanjaro for the kids at amani children’s home in moshi.
if you exist in our orbit, you’ve contributed in some way; pulling off parties, fundraisers, balls + bashes for good with RNDD or purpose earth, participating in mentorships and more… it’s ongoing and it’s beautiful. because at PROjECT., design can’t exist without gratitude. it’s our way of balancing our bounty—and we just can’t get enough.
