Voices of Youth

February 2011, designed by Hyperakt

Can a design firm  sustain itself on a largely pro bono positioning? Let's hope so. It's looking good so far for Hyperakt, an eight-person firm based in Brooklyn (NY) "with a passion for creating work that effects change in the world around us: meaningful design for the common good.  Hyperakt works with clients who fight for justice, celebrate culture and diversity, spread knowledge and engage in social entrepreneurship."  The firm was co-founded in 2001 by Julia Vakser and Deroy Peraza, former Parsons classmates and fellow immigrants (Ukraine and Cuba), who have successfully survived their first decade. 

Voices of Youth is a UNICEF Web-based program, created several years ago "to offer all children and adolescents a safe space where their voices will be heard: a place online where they can explore, learn, discuss, and grow together." To some staff however the site (and brand) felt flat and stale, and unprepared for social media. A design RFP went out, seeking new energy, and found an enthusiastic response from Hyperakt.

The Hyperakt team provided a clever logo and more importantly, a particularly lively, dynamic kit of graphic tools — including a separate visual system (icon, color palette and repeat pattern) for each of such major social issues as the environment, HIV and AIDS and human rights.   

The logo itself, a wordmark integrating a monogram V, which in turn incorporates a 'speech bubble,' pushes the limits of acceptable complexity but manages to hold the mark together, I think, by the weight of the diagonal V-stroke.  The alignment of the speech bubble to "voices," both physically and in meaning, is felicitous. And the ability to incorporate a program symbol (when appropriate), within the bubble, adds a rarely seen trick to the brand architecture toolkit.  Quite literally, this is "meaningful design."

Here's more, including an excellent brand video.

Credits:
For UNICEF:  Cherif Zouein, Consultant for Youth Section,
Division of Communications
Design:  Hyperakt;  creative director Julia Vakser
 

                                               the "environment" symbol, palette and pattern

        
                                                                                                 a typical repeat pattern

From the client:
Hyperakt did an impressive job in designing a brand that works perfectly well with our very heterogeneous audience. Designing for a global youth while providing a strong local element in the logo with such finesse, flexibility and beauty is truly a work of art. Thank you!  Cherif Zouein