Women's Aid Identity
Designed by David Joyce, Amy Heffernan, Lauren Shannon O'Brien and Adam May at Language
Copywriting: Katy Finnegan
Categories: Identity
Industry: Charitable
Women’s Aid is one of Ireland’s leading organisations working to end violence against women. After many years of service delivery and evolution, a need was identified to update Women’s Aid’s identity. It would be vital that the new identity expressed the compassion central to their work with service users, while also highlighting the important work they do on addressing structural issues and gender inequality.
The existing Women’s Aid identity expressed strength and protection, but it was felt that the illustrative style would need to be updated to something more contemporary, and something that could sit comfortably in a number of applications - particularly in the digital world.
We explored a number of visual routes for the identity, eventually landing on one which evolved the old identity in a striking, contemporary way. We created a mark which incorporated three figures into the shape of a heart, to represent the support Women’s Aid provides, but also the strength and solidarity that is integral to their organisation. The new mark sits in between the two words of ‘Women’s Aid’, emphasising this sense of protection. The sans serif font, the clean lines and graphic simplicity of the new logo would now more accurately reflect where the brand stands in 2021 and beyond. The iconic Women’s Aid purple was retained in order to recognise the heritage of the brand.
We chose a photography style that was realistic and bright. We didn't want to reinforce stereotypes of domestic abuse, or foreground imagery that could be triggering. Rather, we wanted to showcase service users in all their diversity, and chart their journey through Women's Aid and on to a hopeful future.
This new identity was rolled out over all Women’s Aid assets, including the website, publications, presentations and social media materials. Developing the new identity for Women’s Aid was a wonderful opportunity to reflect how the organisation has evolved, and give it the framework it needs to continue to grow, change and speak its message into the future.
