An empty shopfront on South Street is in the midst of transformation. Ennis Carter, the founder of Social Impact Studios, a Philadelphia-based “creative hub,” affixes bolts of colorful paper to a wall and unfurls a vibrant, refrigerator-sized hand-painted canvas beneath a banner proclaiming “Made with Artistry & Activism.”
For the month of July, the space at Seventh and South streets will serve as the site of a pop-up exhibition celebrating the 30th anniversary of Social Impact Studios.
The space, full of vivid posters encouraging viewers to “Make it Happen” and “Eat. Play. Live … Better,” feels a bit like a shrine to positivity, which, according to Carter, is exactly the point. “This is a really important moment to celebrate the idea of putting positive messaging out into the world,” she says.
Social Impact Studios started as a passion project, run out of Carter’s bedroom. Since its inception, the studio has morphed and grown into a widely recognized institution that has worked on thousands of projects alongside nonprofits from across the country.
“[We’re] like a creative agency, but for people who are making the world a better place,” Carter says.
The studio’s mission of “amplify[ing] inspired ideas that spark positive action” takes many forms. They have provided branding for arts and cultural collaboratives like the Intercultural Leadership Institute, designed logos for nonprofits including Hosts for Hospitals, and crafted the national farmers market “Buy Fresh Buy Local” initiative.
Often, Carter notes, the studio functions as a translator, distilling the complex jargon of nonprofits into narratives and slogans that spark public engagement. “When you’re really close to something, you know all the ins and outs, so you can make it overly complicated. I just felt really called to helping people simplify and amplify,” she says.
The pop-up exhibit will highlight the studio’s extensive portfolio and the three decades of creative work in community engagement and social change it represents.
“A retrospective of our work is actually showing 30 years of social impact by everybody we’ve ever worked with,” Carter says. “We’ve worked with hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of groups … and so we just want to celebrate.”
I know you can make anything you want to make, [but] we don’t live in a culture that is supporting that or even supporting people being themselves.”
— Ennis Carter, founder, Social Impact Studios
The theme of the exhibition, which will open July 3, is “Say it, see it, be it.” The message captures Social Impact Studios’s emphasis on positive action and summarizes Carter’s own creative and professional journey.
Encouraged by the response to the graphic design work she’d done as a full-time organizer, Carter opened Social Impact Studios in 1996 to fill an underserved niche in the nonprofit sector.
“I had a more effective experience as an organizer by making posters and graphics and banners and things that would get attention,” recalls Carter. “It seemed that there was a need for people who understood the nonprofit sector or the political activist grassroots work and could also kind of make it a bit more directly geared toward the public.”
Started as a graphic design and publication design business, Social Impact Studios shifted and expanded to meet the technological and political demands of the time. Carter recalls the pre-internet days when much of her time was spent faxing and mailing proofs to clients.
Today, Social Impact Studios serves as a collaborative institution where nonprofits can bounce ideas and learn narrative techniques honed through decades of trial and error. “We help create a strategy for how to get people to hear about your program, how are you going to promote it, how are you going to make it something that is as beautiful as what it is,” Carter says.
The exhibition aims to celebrate 30 years of activism while also inspiring idealism in an environment that Carter acknowledges is bent toward pessimism.
“As a designer, I’m a little bit spoiled in that I know you can do the impossible, I know you can make anything you want to make, [but] we don’t live in a culture that is supporting that or even supporting people being themselves,” Carter notes. “This is a really important moment to celebrate the idea of putting positive messaging out into the world, because that’s what’s going to help us actually become anything that we think we want to become.”
The pop-up will host a variety of events throughout July, including live performances (Carter and her husband are also musicians), book readings and screen-printing sessions.
