Safe & Equal

If everyone is equal, then everyone will be safe.

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Naming
Brand strategy

Brand design
User research

UX & UI design
Site development

Naming
Brand strategy
Brand design

User research
UX & UI design
Site development

Naming, branding and website for Victoria’s newly formed peak body for specialist family violence services: Safe and Equal.

The end result is a brand and website which sets a new standard in the family violence sector. On a practical level, the website has delivered workers across Victoria a statewide service directory; a comprehensive resource library and up-to-date and authoritative practice guides to help ensure the best possible outcomes for survivors of family violence.

But more than this, the Safe and Equal name and brand is a beacon for what we are all aiming for – a society where everyone is safe and everyone is equal. After all, if everyone is equal, and everyone is safe then we won’t have family violence.

The Safe & Equal brand is a bold voice for a new era in the sector.

It captures the organisations’ activist history but also looks to a future where women have a seat at the decision making table to create change. We are extraordinarily proud to have helped such an inspiring organisation deliver a genuinely leading brand and digital tool which helps to address one of society’s most pressing challenges.

If everyone is equal, then everyone will be safe.

The Safe and Equal name – developed by-the-organisation, for-the-organisation, as part of our guided process – is a powerful symbol of change. It creates a brave and future-focussed tone, inspired by the passionate voices we heard in the sector and their shared mission to end family violence.

By adopting an intersectional feminist philosophy, where everyone’s voice is equal, we worked to uncover the shared values which drive the organisation.

This philosophy and approach pushed our design team to look further and deeper into the needs of the sector and the audiences who most needed help. It enabled us to see past more traditionally ‘authoritative’ industry voices to hear younger, less experienced voices – those who work with people in need every day, yet who struggle to navigate a complex, stressful and challenging sector.

5 to 1

Five disconnected websites consolidated into one comprehensive online experience.

Victoria’s Royal Commission into Family Violence made a key recommendation to consolidate the many different websites, online tools and resource libraries into a single, authoritative source for information on family violence. The then Domestic Violence Resource Centre of Victoria (DVRCV) embarked on the ambitious task of consolidating five websites into one single digital presence.

This would benefit users – particularly workers across the family violence sector – with all information housed in one location. It would also benefit the organisation who had unnecessary demands on their team managing content across five different content management systems.

Research:
Studio Binocular worked with Safe and Equal to undertake a comprehensive research phase for the project, including:

– Reviewing Google analytics data
– Digital surveys
– Focus groups with users
– Interactive workshops
– Small groups interviews with internal stakeholders

Website IA and user experience design:
With our comprehensive research report in hand and a flexible and collaborative designer/client relationship in place, we then set about restructuring the content with a strong user-focus. Together, we developed options for site maps and set about wireframing templates with clear functional specifications.

Website design and build:
We then proceeded to design the user interface and develop the site in an agile way to expedite delivery of this complex and detailed build. We also worked with accessibility specialists to help the site achieve the best possible standards – ensuring that this crucially important source of information was open and accessible to all users.

Naming:
In the meantime our brand team worked with the newly merged organisation to assist with naming and branding the organisation: Safe and Equal. Our naming approach involved a highly engaged and consultative process, where we ran naming workshops to generate 120+ naming suggestions from across the organisation. Our client undertook a significant amount of consultation with member organisations, staff, external stakeholders and, importantly, survivor advocates – to arrive at the final name, Safe and Equal.

Branding:
With such an evocative name in place, we then set about designing the brand. Led by our earlier consultation and research phases, the brand sought to capture the essence of this passionate, intersectional feminist organisation. This new brand was applied across the user interface and brought to life through the creation of brand assets and style guide.

The design outcome of this process has been celebrated across the sector. The name, brand and website have been thoroughly evidence-informed and represent the voices of so many passionate members, workers and survivor advocates. The project demonstrates how true collaboration between designers, clients and the community can create empowering design solutions which are warmly embraced because of their authenticity and rigour.

Developing bold, engaging and accessible brand tools
AA Accessibility levels anchor the design of all brand systems and tools.