Company: Consumer Society and Citizen Networks, Kyiv, Ukraine
Project: Visual Identity
Expertise: Branding, Advertising, Art Direction, Identity Design
Project: Visual Identity
Expertise: Branding, Advertising, Art Direction, Identity Design
Background
The Consumer Society and Citizen Networks (CSCN) is an initiative established to protect and promote consumer rights in Ukraine.
CSCN approached Kaffeine Communications to create an awareness campaign.
Before concluding that the campaign is the solution, we had to hear what consumers say.
Dispirited Consumers
The client shared focus group findings and various surveys. What astonished us was that every single survey was emphasizing trust.
Years of an unregulated market and institutional corruption have nearly eradicated any sense that something could be done in this regard.
Rampant false claims about products had eroded trust to the point where it had become an endangered animal.
Mark
When attempting to help an endangered animal, the first step is to restore its habitat. That led us to the question: How might we restore reputable resources?
Fortunately, reputable resources were available, but amidst the ocean of disinformation, they were challenging to identify.
People needed something that would instill trust in the information's source.
Symbols that we used as inspiration
Creating a graphic mark immediately associated with CSCN seemed like a feasible idea. It would serve as a CSCN logo and a trusted quality trademark for any reputable resource.
The concept would operate at scale and have a far greater impact than a time-limited awareness campaign.
Mark Guidelines
We knew it's incredibly challenging to establish a graphic mark that would gain people's trust without substantial time and money investments. Our hope was that its quality would compensate for our budget limitations.
Consequently, we developed rigorous design guidelines:
- Narrative: the conversation should focus on consumer protection.
- Clarity: the depicted symbol should be semantically and visually clear.
- Flexibility: the finalized graphic should meet all technical and media requirements.
- Presence: the symbol should be used at scale across all available CSCN media channels.
- Clarity: the depicted symbol should be semantically and visually clear.
- Flexibility: the finalized graphic should meet all technical and media requirements.
- Presence: the symbol should be used at scale across all available CSCN media channels.
Visual Equation
Our priority was to find relevant metaphors that aligned with the first guideline - narrative.
To effectively filter these metaphors, I utilized what I refer to as the 'visual equation' method. The visual equation entailed selecting two distinct metaphors that corresponded to the desired attributes.
The attribute equation appeared as follows:
We swiftly identified the barcode and umbrella as fitting metaphors.
Next, we simplified the chosen symbols and merged them together to meet the Clarity and Flexibility guidelines.
The black umbrella seemed overly cumbersome, leading us to opt for a negative space solution.
Impact
We complemented the new symbol with the awareness campaign, serving as an ideal launchpad for our graphic mark.
Following the campaign's release, the 'umbrella icon' rapidly gained popularity. Its compelling concept and social benefit-driven purpose garnered extensive media coverage at no cost.
Additionally, it received numerous design awards and was featured in various design magazines.
Learning
Our belief that quality can surpass quantity was validated.
Credits: Kaffeine Communications
"One of Jovan's virtues is - he can coach his subordinates to achieve better results in a short period of time. Due to his different places of work, he is quickly adaptable and can help with the client-agency communication process."
— Anze Jereb, Partner, Kaffeine Communications