Nevada Coalition to End Domestic and Sexual Violence (NCEDSV)

Nevada Coalition to End Domestic and Sexual Violence (NCEDSV)

Corporate Identity

Logo and Collateral Design
Julie Varley

Art Direction, Website Design and Development
Cynthia Hartness

Problem

In 2016, the Nevada Network Against Domestic Violence (NNADV) announced they would become a dual coalition to provide support to organizations providing services for domestic and sexual violence survivors. NNADV would soon become the Nevada Coalition to End Domestic and Sexual Violence (NCEDSV). My team was tasked with developing a new brand for the organization to include a logo, website and supporting collateral such as business cards, a brochure template and e-newsletter template. They also needed a branded website that met the needs of two audiences: the organization members it served directly and potential domestic or sexual violence survivors looking for local resources.

Process

Initial meeting with Client, design department and account executives.
I worked with the account director to conduct a discovery workshop in Reno, NV with nearly 100 stakeholders, made up of member programs supported by NNADV, as well as board members and staff. We split the room into small groups and conducted brainstorm sessions to find out who the organization was, where they were headed and what their stakeholders understood to be true about the current brand. Afterwards we compiled our findings and discovered that the overwhelming response was that the work that NNADV, soon to be NCEDSV, was doing provided hope despite the sometimes grim circumstances. Our reports found that the helpers on the front lines saw their constituents as survivors, not victims.
Kickoff meeting with design team debriefing them on what was learned.
Individual designers concepted and developed ideas.
Presented 3 concepts to the client.
Worked with client’s feedback to finalize a logo designed by Senior Designer, Julie Varley and produced branded collateral.

Solution

Ultimately the coalition chose a logo with the symbol of a butterfly that was designed by Senior Designer Julie Varley. This symbol has deep symbolic meaning not only for the survivors but for the organizations providing services to them throughout the state. As the brand developed further we created a warm, hopeful color palate and began using images of people who matched this feeling. The logo was created to be versatile, either as a standalone representation or together with the wordmark.

The website brings the entire brand together with a strong, warm and hopeful feel from the design to the messaging. Member organizations can find resources and training materials easily through the navigation bar, while survivors can find a map to locate services offered locally. The site also includes an “Escape” button making it easy to leave the site with little to no trace that it was ever visited. This detail was requested by the client to safeguard survivors’ safety. They have since made changes to the site, but the concept and strategy remains.