In this article, you will learn how to design a visual identity for your activist movement. By creating a design handbook for your communication team, your movement will look more professional and consistent on social media, your website and all other visual representations.

Visual Identity #

Why is visual identity important: Visual identity is an important part of any movement's marketing strategy. It needs to be recognisable, simple and memorable.

What should be included in the design of a visual identity for activist groups? Talk about how to design an activist movement logo, colours.

• The logo of an activist movement should be simple and iconic in order to be easily recognisable and memorable. It should include the name of the movement and a symbol that represents its core values.
• It is important to choose the colours carefully. They should match the values of the movement, but also be able to stand out against other logos in a crowded space.
• The language used in the design of the logo should also reflect its core values

Colours #

Create a Unique Palette #

One good way to ensure professionalism is through use of colours for a certain purpose. Palettes are a colour scheme for social media posts, aimed at standardizing background and text colours. Using these ensures that there’s a throughline between related posts, such as using a certain palette (with associated colours) for a single campaign or event.

Using palettes is good practice in creating more of a brand identity. Palettes also ensure that colours used in a post largely work together, and don’t create any unfortunate difficulties, especially for those with visual disabilities

Palette Example #

From left to right

• Used as the main colour, usually for the background of the post
• Used as the secondary colour, often for secondary headlines
• Used as accent colours, for bolded words, underlines, text boxes, etc
• White, black, or one of the palette colours can be used as

Selecting Colours #

Selecting colors as the basis for palettes depends on a variety on a variety of factors

• Use of town, regional, or county colours may work well for local or regional campaigns
• Colours may also associated with a certain movement (e.g. green for environmental issues, pink/purple for feminist movements, etc)
• Something that works based on tone - dark colours may not work in a campaign for children’s park, but light pastels may work better

Color theory is well researched, and there are a variety of resources online describing this. (https://www.colormatters.com/color-and-design/basic-color-theory)

https://coolors.co/?home allows random generation of palettes, as well as generating them based on existing photos

https://www.schemecolor.com/ has a variety of palettes associated with certain themes, such as danger (https://www.schemecolor.com/principles-in-danger.php), feminist (https://www.schemecolor.com/wearing-feminism.php), and the environment (https://www.schemecolor.com/clean-the-environment.php)

Contribute #

Oops… You have stumbled upon an empty page. This is a very interesting topic that we want to write about, but we have not yet had the time to do so.

Do you know anything about this topic? Feel free to share your insights and add any useful resources that you might find.

Related articles #

• Tools for graphic design
• Communication chapter

External resources #

Most resources on this topic are very much commerically focussed. However, we can use their tools to fight against capitalism:

• Design for change by Sogi Campaigns
• Corporate identity by Wikipedia
• How to build a strong corporate identity by 99designs
• The Ultimate Guide to Create a Brand Identity by Nate Butler
• Projecting Power: Visual Strategy for Movements by Look Loud
• Tips for Designing Infographics by Sophie Hartley