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
- 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)
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¶ Related articles
¶ 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