AktivAsia

AktivAsia provide education and training to activists across Asia. Their aim is to empower activists working towards political and environmental change, whether that be at a local, national or international level. To date they have mentored well over 600 activists from the Middle East through to Japan.

We were approached in 2022 to re-brand the organisation, helping them to communicate their ethos of positive change whilst helping them present as a professional multi-national organisation – the latter having its own considerations as besides the parent brand there were at least five country or region specific ‘sub-brands’, a number that could grow in the future.

The identity is informed by three key principles, inspired by AktivAsia’s approach and this is visualised in the first instance in the logo. The action AktivAsia inspire is expressed through a hand-drawn arrow, communicating creativity and a human quality as if activists are literally making their mark; the change AktivAsia facilitate is expressed through a gradient colour palette and graphic layouts that suggest progression; and the positive end result – whether that’s of a single training course or a whole campaign – expressed as a star-burst that symbolises hope and excitement.

Arrows are used as a key graphic device across the identity, imparting a sense of momentum and drive, representative of the activists AktivAsia support, who are moving with purpose towards their goal. These are used as illustrations and backdrops to text, or as a way to frame imagery. Crucially, arrows are communicative but also individually neutral – AktivAsia provide training to, or in, lots of different communities, regions and structures of governance and so they can be used in place of photography or other imagery which may be culturally or politically sensitive. 

Besides the identity we also designed the AktivAsia website, featuring a list of all training courses they offer and pages detailing the activities of each regional sub-division.