ABOUT

Action for Southern Africa is a UK-based charity who works alongside Southern African civil society and activists, advancing human rights, aiming to replace the legacies of colonialism, racism and apartheid with justice and peace.

I was asked to rebrand their visual identity, bringing it up to date for a modern audience without alienating their existing base. The logo incorporates historic symbolism; two semi-circles represent equality and solidarity between South and North, with ‘Southern’ emphasised to reflect their work across all countries in the region.

The new brand draws on their roots in grassroots activism with typography and a sense of ‘imperfection’ that you would find on placards in a protest march. This was brought into the branding in the form of irregular shaped boxes and angled blocks, that along with circles drawn from the logo, add a sense of dynamism and energy to the brand.

The new colour palette was drawn from the blue skies and deep red earth of the region, and purple which has been used across Africa historically as a colour of healing and ancient wisdom, but more recently the colour set off ‘the purple shall govern’ protests in South Africa. The specific shades have been chosen to optimise accessibility with certain colour pairings used for text to optimise legibility.