me da igualdad
CLIENT
Art School Final Project
ROLE
Founder, Graphic Designer
CATEGORY
Brand Identity, Publicity Campaign
SOFTWARE
Adobe Illustrator, After Effects, Premiere
‘Me da igualdad’ was my final Art School project, consisting of the creation of the non-profit, a brand identity & publicity campaign.
‘Me da igualdad’ is a small Spanish social non-profit. It was created to be a community – a team of young disabled people giving a platform for other young disabled people living in Spain.
Project background + description
As a young disabled person living & studying in Spain, I had noticed that there was a gap in the market for an organisation/initiatives which gave young disabled people a platform to speak out about a range of issues regarding things like access to education, accessibility, discrimination, equality & ableism. There were no real communities for young disabled people to meet others like them.
Due to the fact that this was my final project, there were several elements I had to include, such as a brand identity, publicity campaign, merchandising & audiovisual pieces. Furthermore, I only had 70 hours to create, develop & finalise the entire project.
The project was to create the brand (organisation) itself as well. As a proud disabled advocate & design student, I decided that this was the perfect opportunity to bring together my two passions & create a real-life community for young disabled people in Spain.
The problem to solve
After some research I found that the only existing charities/organisations for disabilities all had very cold, outdated, medical brand identities & they weren’t appealing to young people. I saw this as a communication problem that needed solving. Furthermore, the designs of pre-existing charities/organisations weren’t following accessible design theory, therefore excluding a large sector of the disability community.
Project goals + objectives
- Design a brand identity that was accessible, inclusive, youthful, modern, positive & without the ‘medical’ aesthetic
- Create an organisation that could be a network/community for young disabled people in Spain
- Use accessible design theory to design the brand identity
The design process
I conducted thorough research, both from online resources & through ‘accessibility interviews’ I undertook with various charities, & individuals within the disabled community. Once I had this information, I was able to start with the naming process, followed by typography & colour scheme choices.
Inclusive/Accesible Design Research Findings
- Only state simple, clear, necessary information.
- Use high colour contrast & high contrast with text colour, & size. It needs to be easy to read.
- Avoid colour pairings: red + green, blue + yellow.
- Printed materials to be on matte paper.
- Sans serif fonts are much more legible. Avoid serifs.
- Large line height. Sufficient space in between words.
- Align paragraphs to left.
- For Screen Readers, it is important to have clear titles, & photo annotations, footnotes & captions for all photos, illustrations, graphics.
- Avoid ALLCAPS. If they have to be used then only use for short headings.
Brand Identity
Naming
The name ‘Me da igualdad’ is a play on words, roughly meaning ‘it gives me equality’. The concept is taken from the Spanish phrase ‘me da igual’ (meaning ‘it’s the same to me/I don’t care’). The organisation aims to give a voice to young disabled – giving them equality.
The speech bubble symbol represents the communication, the voices & its open form represents the space for others to join the open community that always has space to welcome new members.
Brand Identity Manual: Inclusive Steps
Modern - Young - Open - Strong - Positive - Close - Friendly - a Friendship group - a fighter - Overcoming adversity - 'Together, we can' - Informative
Awareness (Publicity) Campaign
The aim of the publicity campaign was to raise awareness about this new organisation, whilst also conveying the message that disabled people are more than their disabilities. (To read more about each part of the campaign, click the toggle.)
The publicity campaign was to feature posters of members, which celebrated who they were as people, rather than focus on their disabilities. In the past, publicity campaigns around the topic of disability use imagery that focuses on the visual disability & therefore uses emotional messaging to draw the viewer in. This campaign aimed to challenge that previous narrative & focus on who the people were BEYOND their disabilities.
The design of the poster was to feature a powerful, strong, dignified portrait that showed the person, not their disability. The campaign message was “removing barriers” & the focus was on who the person was, regarding their hobbies, profession, etc. – therefore removing the social barriers of stereotypes, preconceptions & prejudices.
The use of a typography hierarchy aimed to bring the viewers attention to the hobby/profession, so that it wasn’t until you looked closer that you realise the top & bottom lines of text reveal that the person has a disability.
The photos are from a photography shoot I carried out with disabled people living in my area. Disclosure: I have written signed permission to use these photos online.
Secondary digital versions of the printed posters were created for use on social media (@MeDaIgualdad) for the digital part of the campaign.
The second part of the digital campaign was to post short videos of 3 members talking about different topics. These short ‘spot’ videos were created using footage filmed during interviews of the members. These were then posted to (@MeDaIgualdad) for the digital part of the campaign.
There were four topics that were featured: “Removing Barriers”, “Inclusion is cool”, “I’m an advocate” & “My favourite quote”.
The post captions were written in the brand tone of voice, aiming to encourage followers/members to join in with the campaign & share their own ‘favourite quote’, talk about what being an advocate means to them etc. This part of the campaign was designed to be inclusive & start a conversation about disability advocacy.
The third part of the digital campaign was to encourage followers/members to share the message of ‘removing barriers’ through the use of a custom Facebook profile frame on the page’s Facebook page (@MeDaIgualdad). Followers/users could apply the frame to their existing profile photo & the idea was that the message of the campaign would then reach a larger audience.
The design of the profile frame featured the brand graphic style, the hashtag of the campaign & the secondary logo.
Brand Merchandising
Collabrating Organisations
