2024
Student Placement & Volunteer Program
InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator, After Effects
#SocialDesign #Branding #LogoDesign #LogoAnimation #MotionDesign
Brief
Student Placement & Volunteer Program (SPVP), a sub-brand of the global brand United Nations (UN), was in the need for a branding to utilise for their future activities.is an initiative by the United Nations Association of Australia (NSW Division) in partnership with Western Sydney University to provide students and volunteers with real-world learning opportunities, and measurable impact.
Motion Graphics
The final logo animation aims to enhance the visual appeal of various digital content and acts as an essential tool in helping build a strong and cohesive online presence.With research and further communication with the client, I found the main target audience of SPVP to be females studying in university.
As people this age have a strong digital precsence, I thought it was important to make an engaging and captivating logo animation which would make a lasting impression. This was achieve with the help of sound effects and music in addition to bold and bright colours and transitions while still keeping the overall animation clean and simple. While achieving all of this was hard, I felt the final animation was able to achieve that quite well. The final animation is also provided in multiple formats and sizes to cater to as wide of an audience as possible and multiple platforms such as YouTube and Instagram.
The Logo
The final logo was created with 3 key components corresponding with the UN and two other sub-brands, ‘Zero Hunger’ and ‘UN Day,’ administered by the UNAA NSW.The first key component of the logo is a colourful rainbow symbol representing the key SDGs of SPVP that was provided in our briefs. The second is the brand name, Student Placement and Volunteer Program (SPVP) which acts as the word mark.
The brand tagline, “Our opportunity to take action,” acts as the third element to the logo. This variation of the logo was provided as a tertiary logo option for the client to be used given the appropriate setting and space is available. I decided to make this variation of the logo after conducting research on existing UN sub-brands where a tagline variation was a common theme.
The logo showcases the brand name in addition to SPVP’s connection to the United Nations in both a direct and subtle manner. The logo’s symbol, forms the initials ‘UN,’ in addition to, ‘S’, ‘P’, ‘V’, ‘P,’ making up the entirety of the brand name– United Nations Student Placement & Volunteer Program. The organic flow of the symbol indicates interconnectedness that is the relationship between the SPVP volunteers and community, in addition to progression and innovation- SPVP’s goal through the student placements and volunteer program. The colours used in the logo are indicative of the main Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that the program contributes to. Additionally, the ‘UN Blue’ is a key primary colour within the logo to link back to the United Nations branding identity, helping showcase the brand’s values and connection to the UN.
Language Variations
Due to the brand’s broad target audience, and specifically their interest in welcoming volunteers who have English as a second language, I felt it was important to make the logo available in multiple languages.The logo is provided in the six official languages of the United Nations, which are English, French, Arabic, Russian, Simplified Chinese, and Spanish. I wanted to also include three additional languages targeting the brand’s demographic within the New South Wales department, which after further research I found to be Hindi, Telugu, and Korean.
For translating the logos, I translated the hindi logo myself, knowing the language, while for others, I spoke to people native to the respective language for proper translating help. However, we also made note suggesting the client to check the translations with an accredited translator if and when they would be used. Additionally, I made all the laguage variations available on Adobe Express as templates where the client can change and edit the text once SPVP translated officially with ease.
Colour Palette
The colour palette was inspired by the main SDGs the SPVP contributes to- good health, climate action, gender equality, zero hunger, and reduced inequalities, as well as the United Nations blue.Accessibility
Additionally, when creating the brand’s colour palette it was important to consider how the colours work from an accessibility standpoint, hence, I researched and made sure to incorporate the latest WCAG 2.0 guide.The Tagline
A common recurring theme amongst UN sub- brands were the taglines used adjacent to their brands and logos.Amy, the group leader, thought of a range of different tagline ideas such as the following:
“Your opportunity to make a difference”
“Your opportunity to start change”
“Your opportunity to inspire”
“Your opportunity to take action”
However, according to the research I conducted of
the existing UN style guides, I found that their focus
was more so on using collective language such as
‘we’ or ‘our’, wanting to emphasise the main purpose
of the program made possible through unity.
Hence, I suggested changing the “Your” to “Our” to be consistent with the parent brand. Giving us our final tagline, “Our opportunity to take action.” I then laid out the final tagline, adjusting the kerning and leading, in addition to creating the clear space, made in accordance with the UN guides.
Hence, I suggested changing the “Your” to “Our” to be consistent with the parent brand. Giving us our final tagline, “Our opportunity to take action.” I then laid out the final tagline, adjusting the kerning and leading, in addition to creating the clear space, made in accordance with the UN guides.
Typography
To create distinction from existing UN brands
while offering an open-source and appealing
typeface, I found the Neulis font family.
With the rising trend in hybrid typefaces, we suggested Neulis Cursive as a primary typeface, while Neulis Neue and Neulis Sans as the secondary for sub headings and body text for our first client pitch presentation.
With the rising trend in hybrid typefaces, we suggested Neulis Cursive as a primary typeface, while Neulis Neue and Neulis Sans as the secondary for sub headings and body text for our first client pitch presentation.
Neulis Sans, used as a typeface for body text, is clean, simple, and easy to read. For other scripts, we presented Noto Sans as the tertiary typeface, as this is an open-source global typeface available in all languages, and Roboto as an Alternate typeface.
As per research, it is important that a typeface has web-safe fonts, come with a widely-used font library service, has various weights, widths, and styles, and share similarities or compliment the other typefaces being used.
Style Guide
To better understand the parent brands tone of voice for consistency, I researched current UN style guides. As a sub-brand of the global brand, United Nations, I thought it was important to research the existing content the global brand had already put out. This would help ensure consistency and further the professional tone and layout.After thorough research, I found the UN volunteers, UN75, and the SDGs style guides which I used as a reference point for the SPVP style guide. This helped in adding elements such as taglines- which are a common theme in many UN sub-brands, and additional sections such as photography. Although I also wanted to follow the general page layout, the style guides were showcased in a portrait format, which is not efficient for style guides, hence, I decided to go with a landscape format instead, which I also confirmed with the team.