Design Students Give Red Cross a Brand Transfusion

The cash-strapped Red Cross gets new ideas; students get real-world experience.

One day last spring, Serin Inan and Yina Ma, two design students at Parsons the New School, stepped up to the classroom podium, nervously giggling. And for good reason: They were about to detail to executives from a global humanitarian aid organization, the Red Cross, its problems--ranging from logistics to branding--and how design could make it better. (All in their second language of English, no less.)

The...