There are roughly 22 million children under the age of 5 in need of humanitarian assistance globally. These children and their families, often fleeing from emergencies and conflict-affected areas, are either living in refugee camps or – in many cases – in informal or insecure situations no child should have to call home.

The Moving Minds Alliance is taking action to ensure that young children and their families affected by crisis and displacement are getting the support they need to rebuild resilience and fulfil their potential. We became involved with the coalition at its formation developing its visual identity and campaign communications.

The response to humanitarian crises understandably prioritises basic needs (food and shelter) above all else. But given the sheer volume of displaced people and the challenges in resolving the root causes of displacement, many of these children will spend their entire childhoods in such environments, exposed to violence and stress that can have long-lasting negative effects on their development.

The ambition of Moving Minds Alliance is to change the face of humanitarian action – to seek a new way of responding to crises that addresses more than just the basic needs and sees the long term potential of child refugees. To do this Moving Minds needed an identity system that would capture the urgency of the situation while giving agency to the children, avoiding the dehumanising and exploitative style of visual so readily associated with children in extreme environments.

Working in close collaboration with stakeholders from across the coalition, we sought to create a visual identity system that humanises and empowers the subject. The name itself has a duality of meaning, both in terms of moving the young minds forward but also in moving the minds of decision-makers towards a more holistic global response.

To achieve this we combined a bold type style with a contrasting active colour scheme and dotted line arrow graphics that creates an urgent and activist feel while remaining approachable and human. The arrow takes a wandering path, calling back to the personal journeys and stories of each and every crisis-affected family. This is combined with a strategy on the usage of images – only documentary images of real families in recognisable and relatable family situations are to be used.

The visual identity was applied to a suite of campaign collateral including a website, fact-sheet and numerous event presentations and workshop materials.

The result is a corporate and campaign visual identity that is enabling Moving Minds to deliver tangible progress on its ambitions.

Since launch the Moving Minds website has been viewed by more than 10,000 people and the Alliance has secured several high profile members and partners including MacArthur Foundation, LEGO Foundation, UNICEF, and Save the Children.

In April 2020 the Alliance was able to mobilise a pandemic response to facilitate increased investment in sustaining support for crisis-affected families during, and post-COVID-19.

“As our ‘visual-voice’ since day one, Wolf&Player’s work has been critical to the impact we have achieved to date, and the change for young displaced children we continue to work towards. The team is thoughtful, insightful, flexible and fun, making them a trusted partner in all of our external engagements.”

Elvira Thissen

Moving Minds Alliance