HIAS
Brand refresh and creative operations
A fresh visual identity, and the creative operations to run it, for the world’s oldest refugee agency.
- Client
- HIAS
- Sector
- Refugee protection
- Scope
- Brand audit, visual identity, global collateral, website refresh
- My role
- Senior Director, Creative
1-minute version
- The challenge
- HIAS serves refugees in 25 countries. It had detailed brand guidelines, yet offices still produced off-brand materials.
- What I did
- I led brand, technology and creative for marketing, communications and fundraising: a brand audit, a fresh visual identity, redesigned global collateral and templates, and a light refresh of the website.
- The result
- Engagement and fundraising in Latin America rose 15%.
- Scale
- $200M organization, 25 countries.
Challenge
HIAS had detailed brand guidelines, yet country offices still produced off-brand materials. Adding more pages to the guide wasn’t going to fix that.
Insight
People follow a brand when it makes their work easier. So the answer was a fresher identity, and templates teams would actually use.
Solution
We started with a brand audit, then refreshed the identity: deep navy, magenta and periwinkle, bold type, and photography that puts refugees’ stories first. We built templates for social, direct mail and collateral, produced the annual report, gave the website a light refresh, and ran a creative unit that used AI in illustration and production.
Results
Engagement and fundraising in Latin America grew 15%, and teams in the field had templates they could actually use.
The system
The website, the annual report, social, direct mail and collateral, all from one identity. Select any image to see it full screen.
What I’d add today
I’d build on that 15% with a monthly-giving journey: a welcome series, short updates and stories that turn one-time donors into monthly ones.
“Thank you for securing such a fresh visual identity for HIAS that has inspired us around the world to highlight the stories of refugees.”