Civil Rights X Tech
Retro Branding
for an Inclusive, Digital Age
With a key Civil Rights X Tech event around the corner, the organizers Color of Change
were looking for a vintage logo. Something funky, industrial, inclusive - something
to set the scene for insightful panels on hot-button societal issues.
Everything from Civil Rights X Tech would be showcased digitally, so
our designers were going to make it memorable.
While our clients were after a sleek, cool, techy, and distinct logotype,
they also wanted some strong vintage vibes. Something that said
“Atlanta.”
When we think about communicating civil rights, we think about strong, piercing,
and passionate statements. That’s exactly what we wanted to express through
visual communication, too.
We used strong and bold typography to communicate strength and stability.
Through our use of dynamic, diagonally placed typography, we wanted viewers to
perceive the way to success. In the logo punctuation, we used modern techy
elements, such as hashtags (#) and asterisks (*) that feature widely in the digital
world, especially on social media - where we mainly express ourselves through
written words and pictures.
At the back of the logo, barely visible, we infused elements of Atlanta, where the
event would take place. Here, the silhouette of a bird and deer are combined. A
bird - the ultimate symbol of freedom, and the deer, according to Native American
symbolism, to represent love, gentleness, and kindness.
Just as atoms merge to build a molecule, so people merge to form
larger groups - ones that are aware of the challenges facing
minorities. The atom, a basic particle of everything in this world,
represents every person that makes up the human population.
The designed solution focuses on representing the marginalized
communities in a way that shows we are all part of the same world, all
made from the same substance.
This contemporary logo design encourages users together in a
solution-oriented way, and shows a way to build broader
perspectives. All the while, it’s easily applicable to different events
that address similar core issues.
The old and the new now shine out together in Color of Change’s logotype, which
is embedded with meaningful representations and symbolism. It speaks to
everyone, everywhere, bringing communities together to focus on a more
harmonious shared future.