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How can a new brand identity point the way forward?

ABFE (pronounced ab-fee), formed in 1971 as the Association of Black Foundation Executives. The all-volunteer, membership-based philanthropic organization uses its considerable influence to advocate for responsive and transformative investments in Black professionals and communities. For this year’s conference, the chosen theme was “harambee”—a Kenyan tradition of community self-help, fundraising and development. Although the theme is a natural for this organization, even the forward-thinking conference organizers couldn’t have anticipated how eerily resonant it would be at this moment. And as the conference date neared, our original assignment—to create a harambee graphic identity and materials—quickly morphed to reach a world in lock-down.

Let’s all pull together

The theme of ABFE’s conference—harambee—means “all pull together” in Swahili, with an implicit cultural understanding that teamwork and community come before the individual. Our first order of business was to connect the dots between the timeless African theme and the contemporary American organization. Given the overlaps in each, there were plenty to work with. And given the nature of annual conferences in general, teamwork with the internal marketing and the events planning coordinators was the order of the day. So far, so good.

Pulling together color and form

Referencing the ABFE “diamond” logo element and using the organization’s corporate color palette, we created a library of African-inspired patterns with a contemporary feel that could be grouped together in multiple configurations adhering to an underlying square grid. The manipulated vector images gave us the flexibility to adjust the design across multiple applications and keep it fresh in each iteration. Flexibility’s always a big plus, and we’d wind up needing it even more than we realized. At this point, though, we were still business-as-usual. Who knew what was right around the corner?

Can we pull this off?

At two and a half weeks before our mid-April conference date, the coronavirus outbreak struck the world with brutal force. ABFE was faced with a decision: Should they cancel the widely-anticipated conference? When the decision was made to forge ahead in a virtual format, we were able to use the event app Whova to pivot and deliver a complete online experience. We reimagined signage as digital banners, and created animation graphics, slide show presentations, event badges and every other piece of conference ephemera to offer as complete an experience as possible. The conference, quickly renamed “Let’s all pull together virtually!”was a success—and allowed participants to connect and pull together in new ways. In ABFE’s words: “After COVID-19, there remains much work to be done. Let’s keep working to create a more equitable place for us all,”