CLIENT:

ILGA


TASK:

Brand Redesign



ILGA, or the International Lesbian, Gay, Trans and Intersex Association, is a worldwide organization that fights and advocates for the attainment of equal rights for all the sexual minorities.


The organization was founded in 1978, in England, with 30 men from 17 organizations located in 14 different countries. Today, the organization has more than 1200 member organizations in 132 countries from all regions of the world: Pan Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America and Caribbean, North America and Oceania.



THE MANY LOGOS



I know of ILGA for quite some time, and only after I decided that I would be doing something for them that I fully understood how big, well established and decisive this organization really is. Trying to analyze the motifs being my miss-information, I realized that the organization is under-branded. ILGA has a logo but no guidelines or brand architecture in order to achieve brand consistency. Each regional section has their own logo, with nothing or very little connection between the regional logo and organization’s logo, and each organization event has their own visual presence, completely distinct from each other.


I would say that this vast number of inconsistent logos and visual languages is making a disservice to the organization in the way that it is perceived globally by diluting its presence.



THE CONCEPT



My main mission was to make noticeable how big this organization really is so, the first element that I had in mind was our planet Earth since the organization is globally present and the current logo is based on that element.


Looking back at the existing logos, the only elements that are connecting almost every logo, are the rainbow colors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple. The rainbow flag, or the LGBTQIA Pride flag, is a powerful symbol filled with hope, joy and pride. It represents the fight for equality and those colors, when together, are easily recognized by a LGBTQIA person as something that is queer related.


Very fortunately, ILGA is present is 6 regions of the globe and rainbow flag has 6 colors. And just like that, I could connect this two elements.



THE NARRATIVE



After reading about the organization’s history, mission and work in order to better understand and establish a narrative, three key words kept persistently appearing. Equality, freedom and justice.


For Equality, Freedom & Justice.


This statement encapsulates ILGA’s mission and it can be used as a rallying cry in pride parades, manifestations, festivals, etc. It states the beliefs and the intention of the work being made by this organization.


Although this phrase can be used anywhere, from a poster to a website banner, I wanted to also state the organization’s vision. Something less action oriented and more heart felt. Something that everyone could connect with, in a more inspirational voice that could encourage harmony between pluracy.


We all belong to the same rainbow.


This phrase emerges from the idea of using the rainbow colors on the globe, this way making the “rainbow” on this phrase our planet. The use of “We all” is intentional. I would expect every kind of person to read this phrase, and by using the first-person plural noun followed by “all”, I would hope that less open-minded people might read this and feel somehow a bit disarmed, like part of something bigger than themselves and a bit inspired to belong to it in harmony.



WHERE IS THE ANTARCTIC?



I’m glad you asked. ILGA's work is fully human-oriented and their presence in the world depends on the presence of people. Although the Antarctic is a continent, it doesn't have any permanent human inhabitant, which means no humans to represent, protect or fight for. As a result, I represented a globe that is human and ILGA presence-oriented.



CENTERING THE GLOBE



Centering the globe the right way was a big concern for me. I didn't want to be insensitive to one's location, to give too many options or turn up with a version of the globe where a continent would be hidden by others. In order to simultaneously fulfill these requirements, I wrapped the world map around a transparent sphere and centered it by using the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans.


The transparent sphere allows me to show all the regions simultaneously, and by using oceans to center the globe, I'm able to have a larger range of focus on the continents.


By default, the Atlantic centered version of the globe would be the one in use since the organization was born in London and it has its head office in Switzerland. Unless any other version of the globe would be a better fit.



ABOUT REPRESENTATION



Representation is a way of acknowledging someone's existence. Is taking someone that is miss-or-not-at-all-represented and shining a light upon's it's presence as it is. Representation is a powerful thing that many take for granted because they had it, in the most various ways, their whole lives. It's having something to relate to, the recognizing of the possibility of existence and possibility of becoming. Assuring that to the sexual minorities is part of ILGA's work, but also mine.


ILGA's name has changed through time. It started by being IGA, International Gay Association. It was founded by men only, and by reasons that we can only imagine, they didn't take into consideration any other sexual orientation or identity. Eight years later, in 1986, lesbians where included and the name has changed to ILGA.


Nowadays, the name ILGA still exists but on the organization's website, we can read "International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association" as a subtitle for the organization's name. We can see that there was a concern to include all sexual orientations and identities, but the truth is, the logo and the name being used to refer to this NGO is "ILGA". An acronym that still only represents lesbians and gays.



USING THE PLUS SIGN



Something had to happen to the organization's name in order to include the representation of all members of the LGBTQIA community. The acronym "ILGA" has been used for at least 31 years and changing that would be hurtful for an organization that wants to become better known, from the point that it stands today, and not start from a clean slate. Adding characters to the name would make the acronym too complex, easily unrecognizable and it would basically demolish the familiarization that exists today.


The most elegant, simpler and inclusive solution that would still preserve the organization's identity, was to include the plus sign.


The plus sign is a visual indicator that is already globally established in the community as an effort to include all different kinds of sexual orientations and identities. Making use of it doesn't necessarily changes how we read the organization's name but it shows that ILGA recognizes and includes all kinds of queer folks in its identity.



A MULTICOLOR LOGO



"Logos should be able to work in just one color." That's a basic rule in design that I'm challenging in this project. In this particular situation, I would say that there is power in the use of colors. It gives the chance to easily correlate ILGA+'s logo to the LGBTQIA community with just a glance, it can unleash infinite possibilities in the motion graphics department and it allows me to create a logo system by splitting up the globe icon by regions and colors.


An element that can be seen as a pickle and generate some concerns, can be easily overcome by being removed and using just the wordmark, or it can be embraced by taking the most out of its colors.



THE VISUAL LANGUAGE USAGE



Both above and below we can see possible applications for the logo and visual brand identity. The rainbow color scheme would be used in world events like the Annual World Conference, galas or when the organization is being represented as a whole and not a regional section. As for regional events, they would use the logo that corresponds to the region in question and also the correspondent color. Either as the only one being used or the most prominent in the rainbow color scheme.



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Copyright © 2018 Joana Vieira

YAS QUEEN