Ethiopian Doulas Association Branding
Eshet Children and Youth Development Organization (ECYDO) is a nongovernmental, nonprofit organization with the goal of improving the opportunities for children and young people and caring about the social and economic development of the youth in Ethiopia.
Problem
As part of a project on the prevention of unsafe abortion and improving access of women to reproductive health services, a new Doula Association was established to ensure the sustainability of the project. Women in Ethiopia often lack reliable information about sexual and reproductive health, as well as access to safe health services due to large distances, lack of knowledge, or prejudices.
This project aims to bridge the gaps between health services and women, allowing the training of the first Ethiopian Doulas. Their job is not only to support women during pregnancy, but also to provide them with information to prevent unwanted pregnancies, while linking them with quality services.
This new Doula Association needed a new logo to convey its mission.
Challenge
The priority of the whole project is the prevention of unsafe abortions, which are quite common in Ethiopia and can have terrible consequences. The work of the doulas covers services, such as family planning, and connecting women to safe facilities for abortions and deliveries.
The project has in no way the goal to promote abortion, but the goal is to eliminate very risky unsafe abortions performed by women themselves or by secret abortion providers.
The logo should not focus on specific types of services provided by doulas to avoid stigmatization and to cover all the services.
The overall message portrayed through the logo should be the existence of safe, professional, and trustable services for sexual and reproductive health, based on confidentiality and a non-judgmental approach.
Essentially, the logo should convey the feeling of care.
Approach
After interviewing and collecting information from the client, it became clear that, when the logo would be seen, people should think about safety, support, confidence, professionalism, and encouragement.
We have foreseen the Ethiopian Doula Association logo inspired by kindness and friendship, and with a modern, simple, clean, gentle and youthful look.
Some preliminary designs were proposed and discussed regarding the adequacy of the context, the aesthetics, and the tone.
Solution
A hugging figure was chosen as the one that better communicates the core message.
The Ethiopian Doula Association logo color scheme also revolves around the concept of the Organization. The simplest and cleanest color palette has been selected to reflect the scope and the attitude of the organization. A typeface has been chosen to depict the brand and to showcase the associated message clearly.
Results
The logo was used for registering the association and is being used in all communication with the administration, and in the working equipment.
Only in the first six months of their work, the first ever Ethiopian Doulas assisted more than 500 women to get professional services and reliable information in sexual and reproductive health. The Doulas continue their work supporting daily women in often very hard-to-reach areas of rural Ethiopia, one of the poorests countries in the world, where such services are extremely difficult to get. Doulas work protects the health and lives of Ethiopian women.
“Alexandra designed a logo for our health-related project, Ethiopian doulas, as part of the United Nations Online Volunteers program and we could not be happier! She was very professional, asked thoroughly about our needs and preferences, came up with multiple proposals and then she developed the final design and a whole graphic manual based on mutual consultations.”
ECYDO, Eshet Children and Youth Development Organization
