‘Each year women’s charities receive 75% less funding than charities for animals.’
Presented with this unnerving statistic during our design brief meeting with the Head of Fundraising at Leeds Women’s Aid we were driven to want to help right some wrongs.
Leeds Women’s Aid is an independent charity, formed in 1972, providing services to women and children affected by Domestic Violence and Abuse. The previous way in which Leeds Women’s Aid communicated who they are, what they do and why, needed more clarity and differentiation to avoid confusion with other similar organisations.
We felt in tune with their core beliefs and recently updated brand values:
· All women and children should live in safety, free from abuse and fear
· Every woman and child has a voice and should be empowered, inspired and listened to
· Women centred support is powerful and improves the lives of women, men and childrenTasked with creating a new visual identity, strapline and approaches to messaging we needed to consider the organisations brand values and resonate with all its audiences.
In this article, we take a look at our approach to transforming the logo design.
Previous Logo (Before)
We felt the use of a ‘female’ symbol is overused and cliché. A lot of women’s charities were also using the same mono approach to purple as Leeds Women’s Aid making it hard to distinguish one organisation from the other.
Examples from the sector
Choosing a new design
As part of our work, we looked at alternative options for symbols that would work as a logo. These included a rose shape to make a connection with the Leeds rose; speech marks crafted into a pictogram that looked like women talking/offering support to eachother; plus a heart sketch to communicate support and the caring features and benefits of Leeds Women’s Aid services.
Taking these ideas along with a few extra, purely typographic options to a meeting with service users, staff and stakeholders, there was unanimous agreement for the heart shape.
We worked further to refine the design and make sure it was fit for purpose, by testing out different font options and ensuring the logo worked in different sizes and orientations.
The finished logo (After)
The heart is a compassionate symbol of bravery and unity. Hearts symbolise caring and respect.
The imperfection of a hand-drawn approach reflects the realism of the challenges faced and embraced by Leeds Womens’ Aid.
We recently posted the LWA case study on LinkedIn and a designer we follow commented:
We couldn’t have put it better ourselves! Thanks Grace.
Keen to keep a connection with purple and the historical connection to women’s movements and gender parity. We created a colour combination of purple and peach that would sit comfortably alongside 2 secondary colour pairings Blue and Green, Red and Pink.
The standard full-colour master logo in purple and peach sits at the centre of the new brand identity. The secondary pairings give the brand flexibility and longevity and allow them to be brave and bold in using colour to enforce and differentiate particular campaigns and/or target specific audiences.
We’re very happy with the final result and excited to see Leeds Women’s Aid start using it across their digital and printed media.
