Amnesty, World Vision, Make Poverty History: important and powerful organizations with equally powerful logos. In this post, we deconstruct 25 logos for organizations that make a positive difference in the world, particularly through fighting poverty.
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ONE
ONE is an advocacy and campaigning organization uniting the world against extreme poverty. Their logo along with advertising campaigns relate to their clear and concise messages that present the hard facts. Using a strong capitalized typeface and imagery in black and white they focus on presenting their serious message without glamor.
Bread for the World
Bread for the World is a US based collective with aims to change the policies that are currently in place that allow hunger and poverty to persist. Their logo combines a mix of icons including the Ichthys symbol relating to the Christian faith of its members and the shape of a slice of bread highlighting the focus on food.
Feed the Children
Feed the Children is an international non-profit organization with a mission to deliver food, medicine and clothing to individuals, children and families who lack these essentials due to famine, war, poverty or natural disaster. Their logo represents the joining of hands around the world to help those in need.
Child Poverty Action Group
Child Poverty Action Group is a leading charity campaigning for the abolishment of child poverty in the UK. Their logo represents the nature of a campaign with their name presented as a strong message and reminds us of placards often used in protests.
Muslim Aid
Muslim Aid is a British based charity with objectives to relieve the poor, elderly and children in need around the world. Their logo makes use of the crescent moon, a symbol of Islam.
One World Trust
The One World Trust promotes education into changes required to eradicate poverty, injustice, environmental degradation and war. Although not officially stated, the logo appears to relate to the four main focuses of accountability, peace, security and sustainable development through color. The logo also appears to form the illusion of a cylindrical shape which could represent the O of One.
Tearfund
Tearfund is a leading Christian relief and development charity who works with a global network of churches to help eradicate poverty. Their logo makes use of the Christian cross in the form of a T, linking to the background of faith behind the organization.
Transaid
Transaid tackles poverty and disadvantage by building transport skills and knowledge in the developing world. Their logo makes great use of visual imagery showing the shapes of feet merging into tyre treads, directly relating to the nature of the organization.
Wateraid
Wateraid is an international non-profit organization dedicated to helping people escape poverty and disease caused by living without safe water and sanitation. Their logo makes a direct connection to this focus on water with the use of a water drop graphic. The use of cyan also helps establish a link with the color blue being commonly associated with water.
Africa Now
Africa Now tackles poverty in Africa by helping small scale producers and promoting ethical trade. Their concentration on working with people is represented in their logo with the simplified icon of a human figure, inside of which is the outline of the African continent.
Afrikids
Afrikids is a child rights organization that works with communities in Ghana to improve the quality of life for rejected and vulnerable children. Their logo uses child-like typography to relate to the young people with earthy browns and an icon of the sun which are commonly associated with Africa.
ADRA
ADRA aims to empower the poor around the world with skills, resources and opportunities to live a better life. Their logo uses the lines of longitude and latitude to symbolize the globe and includes iconic figures joining hands around the world to reflect the joining of people to help others worldwide.
Actionaid
Actionaid has a 35 year history of fighting poverty, focusing on HIV and Aids, food and hunger, women’s rights and education. Their logo uses a brash red and an exclamation mark in the place of the letter I to showcase the forward moving actions taken against poverty.
Shelter
Shelter is a British charity that campaigns to end homelessness and bad housing. Their logo uses the iconic shape of a house combined with the letter H to link the logo mark directly with the subject of the charity.
Solve Poverty
Solvepoverty.com is an online outsourcing community which aims to collect donations and outsource technical jobs to those in need. Their logo uses a rounded typeface which helps establish a friendly connection, and showcases their worldwide efforts with a stylized image of the earth as the letter O.
Poverty Fighters
Poverty Fighters fight hunger and poverty and conserve the environment through funding to those in dire need. Their logo focuses on the sprout of new crops symbolizing sustained life.
Dignity U Wear
Dignity U Wear is a US based organization that aims to positively impact the lives of children and their family by providing new clothing. With a logo based on the outline of a coat hanger it makes direct connections to the subject of clothing, but the lines also twist and contort to generate the shape of a heart which symbolizes the love shown by those who give and donate.
Combat Poverty
Combat Poverty is an Irish organization responsible for advising the Irish Government on policies to reduce poverty in Ireland. With a heavy focus on analytics and statistics their logo represents this through the use of chart imagery.
Mercy Corps
Mercy Corps is a non-profit organization engaged in humanitarian aid and development activities. Their new logo released in 2005 uses bold and uplifting lines to reflect on the wider long terms mission of not only food, shelter and medical care, but development, strengthening civil society and inspiring courage to overcome poverty.
Global Call to Action Against Poverty
Global Call to Action Against Poverty is a worldwide alliance of national coalitions of campaigns to end poverty. The GCAP uses the white band to present messages to end poverty and inequality, often worn on the wrist or displayed virtually on websites. The GCAP logo makes use of this white band, showing it wrapped around the earth which relates to their global call against poverty, spreading their message around the world.
UNICEF
Unicef is the United Nations Children’s Fund, who amongst many focuses help children in the developing world. With a logo based on the overall mark of the United Nations, with global icon and reef imagery it represents the aid given to children with the silhouette figures of an adult and young child.
CARE
Care is one of the largest international relief and humanitarian organizations in the world with programs in almost 70 countries. Their logo represents this combining of people from various nations showing converging hands in the form of a circle.
Make Poverty History
The Make Poverty History campaign helped increase awareness and pressure on governments into taking action against relieving poverty. The recognizable logo combines various weights of the Futura typeface and sets a base for a brand that is then transferred to various products and media from wristbands to banners.
Amnesty International
Amnesty International is a western based international non-governmental organization which conducts research and generates action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights and demand justice for those whose rights have been violated. With a motto of "It’s better to light a candle than to curse the darkness” their logo has a visual representation of a candle surrounded by barbed wire, making a connection to those prisoners who have yet to be saved.
Stand Up
Stand Up is a global mobilization to end poverty and inequality. Their logo uses strong typefaces to show the impact of the message and uses the figures of people standing up and speaking out in the place of the letter A, relating directly to the message in visual format.
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User Comments
( ADD YOURS )thepow October 15th
Excelente entrada!!
Este tipo de organizaciones sin fin de lucro merecen todo el apoyo posible, incluso el conocer de ellas por medio de sus logos es ya una lavor dificil.
Saludos y genial descripcion de los logos.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
( )No Offense:
LEARN spanish, i DID learn enlglish.
R.Parks May 6th
Now, if only you could learn to spell it!
( )Mac Tyler October 15th
Loved the WaterAid logo, i like how cute the raindrop is
Mac Tyler
( )http://www.iphonedevforums.com
insic2.0 October 15th
nice logos. great job.
( )Roshan October 15th
cool logos, nice collection.
Roshan
( )http://www.instantshift.com
Tracey Grady October 15th
I’ve always really liked the Care logo. Very simple concept, very effective in conveying its message about the Care organisation.
( )QVectors October 15th
the UNICEF logo looks pixelated..
( )Grafiko October 15th
nice article
( )Jonathan October 15th
The Shelter logo is the best.
( )Jacob Cass October 15th
Not very impressed with some of these logos although that shelter one is great!, simple and effective.
( )Christine October 15th
Agreed with above—I like the Shelter logo best. Great post idea for blog action day!
( )Leon October 15th
Shelter and Amnesty International logo’s were my favourite. Least favourite was Combat Poverty logo - didn’t like the concept at all.. it seems to stretched from who it represents. poverty is more then a statistic.
( )mamjed October 15th
here is a nice simple logo. its a non profit humanitarian orginization
http://humanityfirst.org/
( )daniel October 15th
nice article!
( )Sean October 15th
yes there are many on the web that are better than these.. i.e: http://siahdesign.com/portfolio — reference action now! logo
-penflare
( )Evie October 15th
I really like the Make Poverty History one - it’s so, so simple, but looks really effective.
( )Daan October 15th
Nice series, I love the WaterAid logo.
However, the 3rd one.
( )The heading says “Feed the children” which contradites the logo saying “Free the children”.
Emmett October 16th
Wow…this is really cool actually
Nice logos - never seen some of them before
Emmett,
( )http://www.soundtrack.ie
http://www.filmandgamecomposers.com
Nick Walpert October 16th
Looking for a new logo for our Foundation which helps give students laptops.
http://www.onelaptopperstudent.info
( )Buzz October 16th
90% are good logos, to bad i have not seen much them on my everyday life.
good logos, great cause, little brand awareness.
( )RajaOtai October 17th
wow…cool inspirations!
( )what a good reference
davide October 17th
nice collection!!
( )Dainis Graveris October 17th
Huh, not all but I like several ideas..:)
( )Miles Nassah October 18th
Most of these logos are disappointingly uninspired. The ones that work for me are:
Afrikids, Actionaid, Dignity U Wear, Amnesty International, Care & UNICEF.
The rest are vague, seem to have no direct relevance to the nature of the respective organizations, and are totally forgettable. As poster Buzz said, no brand awareness.
You could sponsor a contest where you could list worthwhile causes (necessarily newer, less established organizations) and have your readers design logos for them. Successful ones would be donated to the relevant organizations. That would be a great public service act, it would help your readers be more aware of conflict issues (obviously, the designer would need to be aware of the client’s raison d’être), you and the winners would undoubtedly get coverage from major news organizations, and you could have the successful artists dissect their logos and explain the thinking, creative and design processes to your readers.
Everybody wins. Deserving, non-profit organizations get some great logo branding, you get recognition and we learn more design stuff. Maybe the winners can follow up with paid work completing the brand portfolio (stationery, banner, flyer, buttons, decals, etc.)
What do your readers think about this idea?
( )Miles Nassah October 18th
Forgot to add to my post that I generally dislike text-based logos. Here’s why. If they are in English and and most of them are, they automatically disenfranchise the majority of folks in the world who don’t speak English. I am talking about the poor folks, the usual target/recipients of charity organizations. I believe that a graphic-based logo is instantly recognizable, has great and long-lasting brand awareness and resonates across language, culture, religion and location.
I wonder how many poor folks around the world would recognize “ONE” or “Child Poverty Action Group” as logos or even understand what they represent. Consider this: If you saw the Amnesty International logo but didn’t know the group’s name or charter, you could at least guess that the candle may represent some type of freedom or knowledge that the barbed wire is confining. And your guess would be pretty close to their charter. What can you deduce from the Poverty Fighters graphic?
Thank you for this article and for the chance to comment.
( )rubina husain October 18th
The Stand up Logo is a strong design! Stands out!
( )Meshack October 24th
Thanks brro above, fore the thoughtfull messages, I wonder wha tis ni earth sometime people think or we dont forget the reason of the creativity the consious behind the scine. We all like what we like the power and desire we forget that the chance of explession is minimum as you see obove the designers chances we are Greaterly to get that Idea on the board of the world thank when you Got that Like Id number convey you Ideology we are Going to apreciat… other concept are relavant Language to be used and Graphic All are Compliments but thanks for every thinf here… comment are Varied and author messege send all comment are usefull more less than compliments
( )Shane October 28th
A variety of quality in there. Got to say that some of them are rather uninspiring.
Thanks for posting.
( )Brio November 17th
The Shelter-logo is very simple, but for some reason I liked that best.
( )oobleck December 19th
What a let down. Some of these are nice logos. But the title of the post says “deconstructed” and all I see are brief descriptions of the logos. I was hoping for more in depth analysis of the images and their real or potential meanings in regards to their organizations and missions.
Please deconstruct them as implied. That would make this post worth reading. Give me some depth! I know you can think.
( )Philip December 19th
While it’s perhaps not quite as large of a non-profit as some of the one’s listed above, we just got done with a redesign of the logo for a Bozeman, Montana non-profit - the Esperanza Center.
Take a look and let me know what you think!
( )http://manifestbozeman.com/blog/2008/12/19/cool-animation-of-the-progression-of-a-logo/
Mike December 27th
Our web design studio has been working with many non for profits lately and this is a great post that displays simple examples of great logos.
( )James Bake April 19th
Great collection of logos.
( )R.Parks May 6th
Some of these logos are pretty creative and I agree that outstanding graphics are going to be truly memorable. But no offense, Miles, yes, I do think a poor child can learn what the word ONE means. However, even if THEY don’t, all the impressive graphics and words from well-meaning non-profits won’t mean a thing if they can’t or don’t deliver what their logos represent. That is why I only donate money to organizations that are audited by organizations like Charity Navigator or ECFA, to make sure the money actually goes to them, not to the executives in a high-rise office suite.
( )