Templo softens the feel of human rights sector with Raid rebrand

Raid, a UK charity and corporate watchdog NGO, has always had a very accurate brand identity. It was successful at communicating its expertise in law and advocacy while working to expose corporate wrongdoing – but is it enough for a charity like this to just appear accurate and direct? In particular, nothing in its branding spoke to the “tenacious” nature of the organisation. This was a top priority for Templo, the agency behind its recent rebrand.

Raid has gone from capitalised, serious sans serif to a wordmark set in Dinamo Maxi – a typeface full of juxtaposing shapes and depth. For Pali Palavathanan at Templo the decision actually came down to one small detail: the counter shape of the R. In early explorations, the agency wanted to embed a spotlight into this counter shape (referencing Raid’s investigative nature) whilst aligning it to the diagonal stroke. “Maxi’s R rounded counter shape fit this perfectly,” says Pali.

The almost playful nature of this choice says a lot about Templo’s approach to this project, and its cause-led practice more generally. “Most of our work intersects with the human rights and anti-corruption spaces and we’re constantly confronted with preconceptions of what these spaces should visually feel and look like,” Pali says.

Just like many of its contemporaries, Raid’s identity prior was direct without many other layers of persona. “Plus the word ‘Raid’ itself is quite an aggressive word,” says Pali, “and this needed to be softened visually and then paired up with on the ground photography and video footage from investigations.”

A flashlight orange has been introduced, giving Raid’s previously lawyerly blue a new pairing. Raid also has a lot of text-based content to house as a charity, from first-hand testimonials to reports. The colour palette and new icons both go far in helping to make this information more digestible; more colourways give Raid the option to add forensic lines to materials, while the icons help to quickly reference different stands of Raid’s work.

The refreshed identity will assist Raid in its daily ambitions to drive lasting impact: “We’re in the middle of a crisis of human rights, and it’s only going to get worse as global demand for these essential minerals skyrockets,” says Anoushka Rodda, Templo co-founder. “It’s urgent we tackle this problem now and hold those responsible to account – and design has the power to push this fight to the next level.”

Recent projects for Raid include work exposing human rights abuses associated with cobalt mining in the Democratic Republic of the Congo – you can read more of it’s reports and findings here.