Can Creativity Lead to Peace?
Monday, February 25, 2008
"Absolutely,” says Peace it Together, a non-profit organization that empowers youth to promote peace through dialogue, filmmaking, and multimedia. Since 2004, Peace it Together has been facilitating summer camps that bring together youth from Palestine, Israel, and Canada to create short films about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Working together, campers confront and question tough issues as they collaborate to create films that will inspire and transform.
Back at home, Peace it Together works with the youth to become leaders in their communities, using the films they created as educational tools in the conflict region and around the world. Their work has garnered international media coverage and been recognized with awards such as the city of Vancouver’s Cultural Harmony Award and a joint BC Human Rights Coalition and United Nations Association of Vancouver’s Renate Shearer Memorial Award.
With a few years of success under their belt, Peace it Together was looking to expand their program to include other global conflict zones as well as attract new donors and participants. They turned to Fleming Design for some branding SOS. After learning about the Peace it Together program and vision, we were more than happy to offer our design services to help boost public awareness and push this inspirational organization to the next level.
It was quickly apparent that Peace it Together’s brand was inconsistent and incomplete. The fonts, colour palette, and style of their website were disjointed - and they had no print materials to speak of. They needed a brand overhaul, including a new logo, stationery package, event invitations, and website that would appeal to a broad audience: youth who are potential program participants as well as potential donors and supporters.
We jumped right in with logo development - a process that involved many unique creative challenges! Given Peace it Together’s mandate, it was crucial to stay away from politically or culturally charged colours and images (which we soon found out eliminates a whole lot!). We also wanted to create a logo that would work well in a motion piece - for example, as part of the pre-roll clip that we developed to introduce every youth film. And, of course, it had to convey Peace it Together’s focus on peacemaking, dialogue, and film.
We came up with hundreds of iterations of our various logo ideas and eventually narrowed it down to four to present to the Peace it Together team. The chosen design was a black-and-white logo that puts a filmmaking spin on the iconic peace dove image. The dove’s tail twists into a piece of film, and is centred over the Peace it Together wordmark. A dove naturally lends itself to motion, and we knew this logo would translate well across mediums.
Once the logo was finalized, we went on to produce business cards, stationery, and a special fund-raising event invitation. We were pleased to see that our suppliers stepped up to help out Peace it Together too. Rhino Print Solutions donated all the printing costs for the business cards and stationery and Coast Paper made a partial paper donation. We finished off the print materials with a Brand Standards document, providing guidelines on proper logo usage, font styles, and document templates.
Turning to the website design, we kept many of the logo objectives in mind. We wanted to bridge the gap between corporate donors and youth, while maintaining a politically and culturally neutral look. To make the website inviting and easy-to-use, we used a grid-like layout and clean type. To incorporate an element of fun and an energetic feel, we played with the icons and added ever-changing accent colours on the navigation bar, section headers, and introductory copy.
Using a rotating palette of accent colours avoided the potential problems of showing affiliation to any particular colour. Every time a user refreshes a website page or logs on again, a new accent colour appears. The bright punches of colour keep the site youthful and upbeat without any “colour allegiance.” Photos of the youth participants also added vibrancy and interest, and change whenever the site is refreshed.
Another key consideration for the website was ensuring visitors could view the youth-made films. We embedded the films on YouTube which is not only an easier interface to use but also reduces costs for the non-profit because there are no hosting fees. Now, each youth film is directly accessible from the Peace it Together site, providing a worldwide online audience.
The new brand was a hit all around. Not only did the team at Peace it Together love it, but perhaps most exciting is that it got the attention of Steven Spielberg’s Righteous Persons Foundation which made a signifcant contribution that received coverage in January 11, 2008’s Globe and Mail. We hope the new brand will contribute to Peace it Together’s future success, helping it garner the support and attention it deserves as it promotes its creative path to peace.
