Matter Unlimited launches new identity for social justice non-profit
Liberty Hill, an LA-based social justice non-profit, worked with creative consultancy, Matter Unlimited, to rethink and broaden its message, with the aim of inspiring an even bigger wave of change. To do so it launched “Justice for All,” a new direction and brand refresh designed to help the organisation step into the spotlight.
The new brand identity and messaging is designed to lend weight and power to its aspirational vision of the future.
“If you’ve ever been on the front lines of the fight for equality, you know that justice has never been offered equally in this country. But that doesn’t mean that we should give up that fight. With our work for Liberty Hill, we wanted to reframe the phrase as a guiding light for progressives so that vulnerable members of the LA communities are never left behind,” says Isis Dallis, managing director at Matter Unlimited.
Reframing that message meant not only retelling the story of Liberty Hill across new social content, ads and a redesigned website created by Matter, but also re-emphasising the inspiration behind their name. The Liberty Hill strike of 1923 laid a foundation of progressive success against low wages, bad working conditions, and imprisonment of union activities under California’s Criminal Syndicalism Law, which was ruled unconstitutional in 1968.
“We took great care to create a new identity that visually makes ‘liberty’ and even the ‘hill’ a symbol of power and progress,” says Dallis.
The brand also had to feel like something the local community could take ownership of, a central tenet of the organisation. “It was important for the new branding to have a sense of place, to feel grounded or at least reflective of the local community in Los Angeles County and Southern California,” says Matter Unlimited design director, Frank William Miller, Jr.
“We pulled color inspiration from contemporary sources like city and county flags and the local terrain—land, sea and sky, but we also found inspiration in early 20th century union logos and social movement signage to inform our typeface selections,” he adds.
