Human Dignity Trust

The challenge

Human Dignity Trust (HDT) is a UK-based NGO that works with LGBT activists globally, assisting them to use the law to defend the rights of LGBT people. Since 2011 they’ve worked with local activists in 18 countries to challenge and change the laws that criminalise lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender people.

However, from a brand perspective, the look and feel of their collateral didn’t echo the professional services offered, nor the openness of their staff and partners.

The brief

HDT approached Fat Beehive with a desire for their brand to reflect who they are as an organisation now: professional, approachable, modern, trusted and world-class. We helped them define their four primary audiences as donors, lawmakers, human rights activists on the ground and journalists.

They needed a complete overhaul, from the website to printed materials, to choosing new typefaces, templates and a thoughtful new logo.

Our branding approach

Our mood boarding helped define the directions to explore, referencing magazine layouts, bold and refined typefaces and clean digital layouts.

Many logo options were presented and we included the HDT team in every part of the process, from shaping ideas to giving feedback to ensure the end result met the original brief.

Our elegant solution represents confinement or persecution as a square, with one side opening, signifying freedom. This frame then becomes a brand device, able to be scaled, stretched and coloured for different assets, while maintaining recognisability.

The sophisticated primary red wine colour is partnered with a warm stone grey, keeping the colour palette simple yet confident. The primary Human Dignity Trust typeface chosen is Spectral – an open source Google font, helping the organisation keep costs down while still maintaining a professional persona. It’s used for both the logo and icon, as well as all professionally printed assets and the website.

The brand came to life on the website with a clean and elegant layout that’s not afraid of white space. Refined details such as the thin grey keylines add elegance and important visual separation to the design, with the red wine colour used for contrast which draws the users’ eye towards key areas.

An informative, interactive map displays the global scope of HDTs work, which cleverly collapses into accordions at mobile to improve the user experience, while subtle animations across each page add to the sophistication.