PEACE OVER VIOLENCE
In 2004, my practice decided to devote a large part of its resources to the ‘Los Angeles Commission
on Assaults Against Women’ (LACAAW), a non-profit, multicultural, volunteer organization in Los
Angeles whose mission is building healthy relationships, families and communities, free from sexual,
domestic and interpersonal violence.
LACAAW’s Executive Director Patti Giggans and its Board of Directors approached me to give the agency a new name and visual identity. The agency had gone through much change since it started as a volunteer rape emergency hotline in 1971. Services had expanded beyond intervening in sexual assault and domestic abuse cases against women, to also actively preventing violence through education programs for youth, including girls and boys, while running a range of specialized services reaching underserved groups. The agency has an excellent reputation, and is a social partner that informs public policy and opinion on a local, state and federal level. Forty full time staff work in three offices (in downtown LA, Pasadena, and the Valley). Everything had evolved, except the agency’s name.
From 2004 to 2007 my practice, which consists of myself and partner Adam Eeuwens, became the agency’s brand steward to lead them through their re-branding process. We helped them in repositioning their mission, gave them a new name and visual vocabulary that more accurately represents the agency’s expanded mandate, and helped them launch and implement it.
For six months we interviewed the different stakeholders of the agency, from staff to board members to volunteers. We studied the history of the movement and the pervasiveness of the problem. In the summer of 2005 we presented to the Board of Directors our positioning document and name proposal. We proposed ‘a name as an engine,’ a strategy where the name would function as a self- propelling force, a campaign in itself, and an all-inclusive call to action to rally people behind a larger social movement. The name is Peace Over Violence.
Peace Over Violence is an equation that the agency works to resolve every day. The tag line “One on One, One by One” reveals the approach. “One on One,” the agency’s intervention services give individual counsel to guide people to overcome violence inflicted upon them. “One by One,” in their prevention services, the agency trains and teaches people to be free from violence.
The double meaning of OVER is ideal. It creates a temporal and spatial relationship to violence that directly reflects the position of the organization. Over is to be on top of, above and greater than—a position with a clear vantage point. OVER is also to be at the end of, through with, finished and no longer affected by. It is where the agency works to get the people they serve to be in relation to violence. To be Over Violence is the agency’s constant position, and everyone can join the cause. The brand engine is activated by the relationship to any verb or noun that is placed within the equation <Blank> Over Violence. The message takes on various characters—as a personal badge: “I Am Over Violence” and “Antonio Over Violence.” As a symbol of collective pride: “Cops Over Violence” and
“UCLA Over Violence.” As a call to action: “Voices Over Violence” or “Protest Over Violence.” As a bold ambition: “Peace Over Violence.” Every individual, group and community is invited to join the cause and dynamically and exponentially propel the agency’s vision of a world “Over Violence.”
The new name and identity was launched at the 35th Annual Humanitarian Awards in October, 2006, the agency’s most important fundraiser. Significantly more money than the year before was raised, which signified the best endorsement the supporters and sponsors could have given to the new name. The agency’s new website at www.peaceoverviolence.org launched the same day.
Before becoming a fully tenured professor at the Design | Media Arts department at the UCLA School of Art and Architecture, I was creative director at Ogilvy & Mather, a global advertising agency, leading their Brand Integration Group in Los Angeles, working on brands like IBM, Microsoft, Motorola etc. When in 2003 I left the corporate realm for academia, I had an interest in applying the commercial strategies of brand to the objectives of non-profit organizations, where the ‘profit’ motive is not measured in money, but in the social change affected. As professor my primary research focuses on critical reflections on visual communication practices and in particular on brand identity and consumer culture. I run the Brand Lab, two consecutive classes during the Winter and Spring Term, devoted to strategizing and designing the construction and communication of identity.
I teach the students a brand is not just a visual identity and a designer is not just a cake decorator. Rather, a brand is core to the mission of the organization and needs to be applied to every expression of the brand so that it becomes consistent, trusted and instantly distinguishable, and the user chooses to make it part of their culture and choice of life. The designer then is a visual thinker and maker, who translates the strategy of the organization into effective communications that tell the appropriate story. The brand identity then is a logical and natural extension of everything the organization does, and ends up strengthening and amplifying its objectives.
During the three year process at various stages a total of 16 UCLA students from the Design | Media Arts Graduate and Undergraduate Department assisted in the creation of the new name and identity, giving them both a valuable experience in working with a real client, and in being exposed to how their graphic design communication skills can be applied toward social change. The students who joined as interns, independent studies or through the brand lab class allowed my practice to offer at a fraction of the cost the full service a commercial agency like Ogilvy would have given.
All throughout the project our dream objective was for the agency to create a permanent fulltime staff position for a designer. As Peace Over Violence is literally out there in the community every day saving lives, and is in a constant struggle to fund their services through local, federal and/or private grants, this seemed a bridge too far.
UCLA alumni Daniel Pizarro (2007), who worked under my guidance on Peace Over Violence’s Denim Day in LA event in his last term as student, was at our recommendation hired straight out of school by the agency, and in December 2007 accepted a fulltime position with them as their designer. He wrote me and Adam this note:
“Thank the two of you for helping me jump start my career as a designer. The two of you have really given something very concrete to hold onto. I consider you both as mentors and friends, and I feel I have learned much from the two of you both professionally and personally. You have been a great role model for myself and many of the other students at DMA. I hope this message find you two with good health and joy.” After three years Daniel was accepted into Yale University Graduate School for Design. A second graduate from UCLA Design Media Arts –Cayla McCrea– took over his position.
Peace Over Violence’s Associate Director Cathy Friedman wrote to us that the hiring of Daniel into a fulltime position “has been a tremendous step for our agency (and for the field), and it is truly an institutional change. Unlike corporate entities, human service agencies--as you know--have not put much energy or credence into the portrayal of a visual, pubic image.”
Daniel’s hire opens up a second objective we always had in mind, connecting the mission of a social service agency with the story telling force of the creative classes, not just designers, but also filmers, photographers, writers, artists etc. Though we remain involved as members of the Advisory Board for occasional consultation, we can imagine our involvement expanding again to keep the Peace Over Violence engine spreading its message.
See Peace Over Violence website.
Credits:
Creative direction and design: Rebeca Méndez.
Research, strategy and copy editor: Adam Eeuwens.
Photography: Michael D. Powers.
Research, design and production assistants: Gregg Dodds, Tyson Evans, Jenn Tranbarger, Ryan Weafer, and Roxane Zargham.
LACAAW’s Executive Director Patti Giggans and its Board of Directors approached me to give the agency a new name and visual identity. The agency had gone through much change since it started as a volunteer rape emergency hotline in 1971. Services had expanded beyond intervening in sexual assault and domestic abuse cases against women, to also actively preventing violence through education programs for youth, including girls and boys, while running a range of specialized services reaching underserved groups. The agency has an excellent reputation, and is a social partner that informs public policy and opinion on a local, state and federal level. Forty full time staff work in three offices (in downtown LA, Pasadena, and the Valley). Everything had evolved, except the agency’s name.
From 2004 to 2007 my practice, which consists of myself and partner Adam Eeuwens, became the agency’s brand steward to lead them through their re-branding process. We helped them in repositioning their mission, gave them a new name and visual vocabulary that more accurately represents the agency’s expanded mandate, and helped them launch and implement it.
For six months we interviewed the different stakeholders of the agency, from staff to board members to volunteers. We studied the history of the movement and the pervasiveness of the problem. In the summer of 2005 we presented to the Board of Directors our positioning document and name proposal. We proposed ‘a name as an engine,’ a strategy where the name would function as a self- propelling force, a campaign in itself, and an all-inclusive call to action to rally people behind a larger social movement. The name is Peace Over Violence.
Peace Over Violence is an equation that the agency works to resolve every day. The tag line “One on One, One by One” reveals the approach. “One on One,” the agency’s intervention services give individual counsel to guide people to overcome violence inflicted upon them. “One by One,” in their prevention services, the agency trains and teaches people to be free from violence.
The double meaning of OVER is ideal. It creates a temporal and spatial relationship to violence that directly reflects the position of the organization. Over is to be on top of, above and greater than—a position with a clear vantage point. OVER is also to be at the end of, through with, finished and no longer affected by. It is where the agency works to get the people they serve to be in relation to violence. To be Over Violence is the agency’s constant position, and everyone can join the cause. The brand engine is activated by the relationship to any verb or noun that is placed within the equation <Blank> Over Violence. The message takes on various characters—as a personal badge: “I Am Over Violence” and “Antonio Over Violence.” As a symbol of collective pride: “Cops Over Violence” and
“UCLA Over Violence.” As a call to action: “Voices Over Violence” or “Protest Over Violence.” As a bold ambition: “Peace Over Violence.” Every individual, group and community is invited to join the cause and dynamically and exponentially propel the agency’s vision of a world “Over Violence.”
The new name and identity was launched at the 35th Annual Humanitarian Awards in October, 2006, the agency’s most important fundraiser. Significantly more money than the year before was raised, which signified the best endorsement the supporters and sponsors could have given to the new name. The agency’s new website at www.peaceoverviolence.org launched the same day.
Before becoming a fully tenured professor at the Design | Media Arts department at the UCLA School of Art and Architecture, I was creative director at Ogilvy & Mather, a global advertising agency, leading their Brand Integration Group in Los Angeles, working on brands like IBM, Microsoft, Motorola etc. When in 2003 I left the corporate realm for academia, I had an interest in applying the commercial strategies of brand to the objectives of non-profit organizations, where the ‘profit’ motive is not measured in money, but in the social change affected. As professor my primary research focuses on critical reflections on visual communication practices and in particular on brand identity and consumer culture. I run the Brand Lab, two consecutive classes during the Winter and Spring Term, devoted to strategizing and designing the construction and communication of identity.
I teach the students a brand is not just a visual identity and a designer is not just a cake decorator. Rather, a brand is core to the mission of the organization and needs to be applied to every expression of the brand so that it becomes consistent, trusted and instantly distinguishable, and the user chooses to make it part of their culture and choice of life. The designer then is a visual thinker and maker, who translates the strategy of the organization into effective communications that tell the appropriate story. The brand identity then is a logical and natural extension of everything the organization does, and ends up strengthening and amplifying its objectives.
During the three year process at various stages a total of 16 UCLA students from the Design | Media Arts Graduate and Undergraduate Department assisted in the creation of the new name and identity, giving them both a valuable experience in working with a real client, and in being exposed to how their graphic design communication skills can be applied toward social change. The students who joined as interns, independent studies or through the brand lab class allowed my practice to offer at a fraction of the cost the full service a commercial agency like Ogilvy would have given.
All throughout the project our dream objective was for the agency to create a permanent fulltime staff position for a designer. As Peace Over Violence is literally out there in the community every day saving lives, and is in a constant struggle to fund their services through local, federal and/or private grants, this seemed a bridge too far.
UCLA alumni Daniel Pizarro (2007), who worked under my guidance on Peace Over Violence’s Denim Day in LA event in his last term as student, was at our recommendation hired straight out of school by the agency, and in December 2007 accepted a fulltime position with them as their designer. He wrote me and Adam this note:
“Thank the two of you for helping me jump start my career as a designer. The two of you have really given something very concrete to hold onto. I consider you both as mentors and friends, and I feel I have learned much from the two of you both professionally and personally. You have been a great role model for myself and many of the other students at DMA. I hope this message find you two with good health and joy.” After three years Daniel was accepted into Yale University Graduate School for Design. A second graduate from UCLA Design Media Arts –Cayla McCrea– took over his position.
Peace Over Violence’s Associate Director Cathy Friedman wrote to us that the hiring of Daniel into a fulltime position “has been a tremendous step for our agency (and for the field), and it is truly an institutional change. Unlike corporate entities, human service agencies--as you know--have not put much energy or credence into the portrayal of a visual, pubic image.”
Daniel’s hire opens up a second objective we always had in mind, connecting the mission of a social service agency with the story telling force of the creative classes, not just designers, but also filmers, photographers, writers, artists etc. Though we remain involved as members of the Advisory Board for occasional consultation, we can imagine our involvement expanding again to keep the Peace Over Violence engine spreading its message.
See Peace Over Violence website.
Credits:
Creative direction and design: Rebeca Méndez.
Research, strategy and copy editor: Adam Eeuwens.
Photography: Michael D. Powers.
Research, design and production assistants: Gregg Dodds, Tyson Evans, Jenn Tranbarger, Ryan Weafer, and Roxane Zargham.
