Books open doors
Books open doors. That’s the belief of Book Aid International, a small charity with a big story to tell about the power of libraries, schools and education in Africa.
Book Aid International was set up to help people discover a passion for reading and lifelong learning. Sourcing books brand new from publishers, the organisation supplies over 2,600 libraries a year with resources that are vital for raising literacy levels, helping more people to discover the joy of reading and reach their full potential
It’s also the supported charity of World Book Day, the annual celebration that now has children all over the world dressing up as their favourite characters in literature.
But for some, ‘book aid’ remains associated with the idea of accepting and donating second-hand books to schools, leaving strategic partnership work to support literacy and learning unrecognised.
A clearer story
To tell a clearer story, Book Aid International decided to bring fresh energy to their visual identity and create a more powerful, narrative web presence.
Seeking designs that would resonate both with publishers and with partners in Africa, we created a suite of visual brand assets.
Taking our inspiration from storybooks, we worked closely with Book Aid International to give the brand a more creative, playful feel. We sharpened the colour palette, redrew the logo and developed a new illustration style.
These included infographics to showcase impact, adding personality and context to their statistics. We then produced a comprehensive set of brand guidelines to ensure that Book Aid International could take it on with confidence.
It was a big moment when we handed the new guidelines to our designer. The results were a real testament to the brand guidelines we developed.
– Jessica Faulkner, Head of Communications, Book Aid International
Telling the story online
For the new website, we worked in WordPress. Conceptually, we kept storybooks in mind, looking for how narrative could flow and inspire, like in all the best stories. The detail and structure was shaped in light of a series of collaborative content planning and user experience sessions, drawing on the experience from around the team at Book Aid International.
Bringing through the new visual brand, we focused on surfacing the stories around Book Aid’s projects, highlighting impact and the offer for potential partners and supporters, and making popular resources for teachers around World Book Day more easily accessible.
We look forward to seeing how the plot develops – seeing Book Aid International become better known for their creative partnership work with communities and publishers, through which books really can change lives.
Visit the Book Aid International website to find out more.
