GiveNKind: time for a rebrand
In 2014, my daughter’s choir teacher asked me if I could design a logo for a new venture. I said absolutely! I love being part of a team that makes a dream come to life.
Emily Petway wanted a logo that would appeal to soccer moms who might be willing to get rid of extra items, especially for a good cause. Her idea was to create a non-profit to help other nonprofit organizations find the things they needed. GiveNKind was launched in her basement as a part-time venture.
Fast forward ten years; first, she rented a storage space and then upgraded to a small warehouse. Now, she operates a 13,000 sq. ft. warehouse with employees and volunteers and they get donations from corporations, not soccer moms–that is an abundance of growth!
She and her team are transforming excess goods into community resources. GiveNKind provides essential products to Chicagoland nonprofits with help from hundreds of volunteers and donating companies across the United States. When a white delivery truck was donated, they realized they needed to apply their branding to make it a billboard on wheels. They had the foresight to recognize that it was time to rebrand.
I’m always grateful when a former client stays connected. Ms. Petway called me back in and we talked through their ideas. The GNK team had conducted a thorough analysis of their competitors and described the direction they’d like to explore.
I’m not going to lie, I got excited and I jumped ahead in the process, thinking I had it all figured out, and missing vital exploratory steps. I was wrong; I needed to slow down, listen to their concerns, and align with the plan.
The job of a designer is to collaborate to solve the problem. Beautiful logos may look nice, but if they do not meet the client’s needs, they are a failure.
In the end, we augmented the existing color scheme by adding a darker blue that aligned with their website. We kept part of the circle and created a bit of movement by varying the line width–motion without adding arrows. Products come in and go out and this logo does a little bit of that too.
I love the new GiveNKind logo. It is effective and it looks good too. I hope you see the truck and take note of the good work they are doing in our community!
Do you have an idea for a blog or question - let us know! aurelie@irisheyesdesign.com