- Client Refugees United
- Project Visual Identity
- Year 2006
After the Flood
Refugees United provides refugees with an anonymous forum to reconnect with missing family. By registering with nick- names, scars, former locations and other markers only identifiable to family and close friends, everyone can remain 'invisible' to all but relatives
When a catastrophe hits such as the Tsunami in Asia, floodings in Bangladesh or war and turmoil in Darfour, Congo or Indonesia families are always split up. When things calm down the separated families often spend onths or even years searching for their loved ones. Posting notes on primitive notice boards, walking from hospital to hospital in search of their relatives or at least some sign, some hope - or in the end some form of closure: a death certificate, a witness that saw them leave to a better life in a different part of the World. Refugees United
Refugees United is a non-profit organization helping refugees to find lost family members. On refunite.org refugees are able to search for family and loved ones that are lost during their escape. Refugees United is using the internet in an innovative way helping people in need on their premises: it's free, safe, without any difficult forms to fill and entirely anonymous.
The visual identity
The primary condition for the system's success is that it holds the trust of the users. Apart from the security precautions that had to be taken around the web site as such and the way of interacting with it which were both thought out by others, the layer that e-Types could add to the quation was to create a visual identity in a visual language that users would feel safe around. Therefore, the design was very purposefully created within a visual universe where the colours and symbols clearly allude to the World of the UN and to humanitarian aid. The leaves in the logo are each in a different colour nuance to iunderline the individuality of each leaf - in that way the leaves hold a references to individuals with each their special history and their particular grief or unanswered question.
Support Refugees United
e-Types supports Refugees United and has designed the visual identity pro bono.
"We thought this was a cause so benign, that we could not say no. The tv images from the big Tsunami in 2004 where desparate families and individualsal walked from
notice borad to notice board to find some sign of life from their loved ones, was almost unbearable. We support the project wholeheartedly and encourage others do the same"
says Partner and managing director in e-Types, Søren Skafte Overgaard.
says Partner and managing director in e-Types, Søren Skafte Overgaard.
Visit Refugees United at refunite.org
Web site
The website is developed by e-Types cooperation partner Matter. One of the major obstancles to refugees communicating about their whereabouts is the fear of prosecution or deportation. Therefore, Matters developers have had to create a system where security is at the highest level. Read more about the website's development here