The Young Women's Christian Association, the YWCA, or as we fondly call it, the Y, is an organisation founded on Christian values, which has grown into a global community of girls and women from every faith, culture and belief system, all working towards a common goal – change for girls and women.
Active in New Zealand since 1878, the YWCA celebrates a long, rich history of challenging the gender status quo, but with this history comes the challenge of remaining relevant to today’s girls and women. Concerned with underlying stereotypes, while working with an outdated, inconsistent brand identity, the YWCA Auckland tasked Spruik with the challenge of redefining their brand positioning and developing a new brand identity for implementation across the Auckland region.
Through comprehensive research and various brand workshops it became abundantly clear that the YWCA has grown, adapted and changed throughout history, and will continue to do so into the future. This adaptability creates a diverse cross-section of audiences and stakeholders in which they speak to. By developing clear audience personas, we were quickly able to pinpoint commonalities, which then informed the development of their brand essence – For every girl. For every woman. For every right.
The brand essence not only respects the YWCA’s history, it formed the foundation for us to build an engaging visual identity, which was anchored around the core concept of equality. Through dual graphic elements; a colour palette representative of both women and men; contrasting typography; and intersecting imagery and content, we have built an identity which is not only flexible, but also represents the impact the YWCA makes for the girls and women of New Zealand.