ENDING GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE
FREEFROM
WHAT WE DID TOGETHER
Brand strategy
Brand voice
Messaging and copywriting
Brand identity and design guidelines
Brand application and materials
Brand consultancy
Website design and build
Reports
Events
Campaigns
Ending Gender-Based Violence: That is FreeFrom’s objective.
Founded by Sonya Passi in 2016, FreeFrom is a national survivor-led organisation on a mission to build a world free from gender-based violence. A world where everyone is free to live to their full potential. The impact of the organisation has grown to include individual support through entrepreneurship opportunities and savings funds; to private sector policy work; to state and federal level policy work; to narrative shifts in storytelling and documentaries.
FreeFrom had long outgrown its brand, message and position and needed an identity and voice that truly reflected this powerful organisation, what it had achieved, and its big, audacious goal for the future.
Working closely with Sonya and her leadership team, we worked very closely to refine and reposition FreeFrom’s visual and verbal identity, it’s ‘how’ and give it a container big enough for continued growth.
THE CHALLENGE:
Shifting the narrative
FreeFrom’s work sits at the intersection of economic freedom, gender-based violence and policy change – centered around survivors.
It’s heavy work that deals with pressing and disturbing issues, and yet the culture of the organisation, its vision and its approach is steeped in joy, optimism and hope.
It was important for the founder that this hope, and communicating that there IS a solution and there IS life after abuse, overrode the heaviness of the issue.
“ Quote incoming…”
Sonya Passi, Chief Executive Officer.
The STRATEGY:
Uncovering the secret sauce
We interviewed members of the board, founding team members and key leadership to unearth the core positioning and what makes this organisation so special.
What shone through was the organisation’s strategy and approach in tackling this issue – a multifaceted strategy that encompasses all stakeholders: from the individual survivor to the community, the movement, to private sector and the role of employers, to policy making at state and federal level.
Everyone has a role to play.
This, matched with their belief that this issue CAN be solved for, became the pivotal positioning for the brand.
“It became apparent early on that this organisation was doing a LOT, with multiple stakeholders, tackling this issue from every angle in a diverse range of ways for a diverse suite of audiences. And still, it was all clearly aligned to a strong vision and congruently. We saw an opportunity to communicate this in a more cohesive way in the brand visual and verbal identity.”
Lauren Jones, Brand by Boudica
“Quote incoming…”
Sonya Passi, Chief Executive Officer.
THE IDENTITY:
Survivor-centred
Once we had clarity on the positioning and brand story, combined with the approach of centering the survivor – we were able to bring that to life in the identity: a diverse, hopeful and welcoming palette to represent all stakeholders; and using the pill/dot mechanic that represents the survivor and the survivor’s journey. The dot can be used in crops, singular, as an aperture, a holding device – many ways, whilst the pill can be short or elongated to hold content, imagery or highlight elements.
The identity is versatile, joyful without being whimsical, balances with strong, bold typography and statements that ground the identity in the boldness of the vision and impact of the work.
Balancing the narrative came through with choice of fonts, too, with a serif font being paired with a clean, sans serif typeface. The overall effect being one that’s multifaceted, yet cohesive, where every stakeholder can see themselves, and the survivor identify with being on a journey.
The impact:
A brand identity ready for growth
Sonya’s vision for FreeFrom showed up at every stage of this process; she was able to see the story and visuals coming together in a way that felt authentic, powerful and aligned. This was a very collaborative process that challenged her own perceptions of what was possible for this organisation, and we worked closely together to build a brand that was ready for growth, that honoured its story so far but with clear sights on the future.
There was not one detail, word or image that wasn’t scrutinised, discussed or designed – everything co-created with the strategy in mind. It was a joy to work with this organisation that provides a place and platform to amplify the voices of survivors of gender-based violence in a compassionate and hopeful way.
Sonya Passi
Chief Executive Officer, FreeFrom
“Quote incoming…”
