New beginnings and fresh hope
A Girl Called Hope
Over the past year, Designworks have been working in collaboration with Mercy Ministries on the development of a name, story and identity. Now named "A Girl Called Hope", it is an initiative designed to help young women in need of support who are struggling with life controlling issues such as eating disorders, self harm, abuse, addictions, depression and unplanned pregnancy.
The organisation is a support network which primarily exists as a residential programme on Auckland's North Shore.
With the need arising to move on from the Mercy brand, the messages of change and new pathways were the obvious themes to explore.
“Lives transformed, hope restored. We kept looking back to that; it defines what we are all about.”
Designworks teamed up with the not-for-profit after an approach for assistance in refreshing their look while remaining in touch with their target group, women from 16-28.
Designworks director Michael Crampin, design director Jef Wong, and designers Michelle Dowd, Michelle Wilkin and Emma Kanuiak worked outwards from the ideology of transformation at the heart of the story. And Auckland band Baby Giant donated their time to create music for the launch video.
The task was to crystallise the notion of the centre. ”It was important to us that the name was ultimately a promise of what we offered – that it clearly communicated who we are and what we do,” says Kerry Petrie, Executive Director of the organisation. The perspective that shaped the project was personification of Hope and transformation – the ultimate gift of the process of change that young women who go through the programme experience
The idea that shaped the project was personifying the journey that each girl takes. “The name communicates the heart of who they are every time it is mentioned” says Michael Crampin. So the idea of A Girl Called Hope was natural, the name being the starting phrase for every individual’s story – that there is hope, that hope is real, hope can change behaviours and restore lives.
The identity was developed to bring the story to life. It is centred around the use of a butterfly icon which relates to transformation and positive change.
Jef Wong who as design director worked with Michelle Dowd and Michelle Wilkin in directing the design was looking for 'a living, breathing identity, something with a gentle touch that felt airy, open, with a natural positivity about it'. As Jef says "I was most interested in the feeling of positivity and sense of new change, rather than specifics.
It was designed to continually evolve and move – as our metaphor. When we joined all the dots with words, music and graphic elements that feeling we were looking for really came to life.
A Girl Called Hope was unveiled in September at the Telstra Events Centre during the Sistas Conference and marks a new start for the project.
“We trusted Designworks that it would be a name that would hold. We didn’t want a name that was simply fashionable. It is something different and fresh and it signifies so much about what we are. We didn’t want it to be just about the house; it’s about the girls and hope.”
"The result cleverly and uniquely captured in the name the essence of what we do – that young women in our nation can have their lives transformed and their hope renewed. Thank you Designworks,” says Kerry Petrie.
