Branding for the National Youth Council of Romania

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Young people in Romania are often forgotten by the authorities. There aren’t enough opportunities for them. The young sector is severely underfunded. Young workers are underpaid and there aren’t even many jobs available for them, they usually get hired at NGOs’ youth centers that have little to no fund by the government. Long story short, a lot of young people need training, therapy and spaces for personal development that are just not available for them due to the lack of funding from the local/national authorities. The National Youth Council of Romania is an independent organization that speaks for all the young people in Romania. They represent their rights and make their voices louder, they talk to important political and public figures to ask for more. And they organize projects to create opportunities for youth.

They asked me to help them develop a new visual identity and a new strategy to reach their young audience better and get a more professional look so they can be in a more legitimate position in front of the authorities and European organizations. They took pride in the national flag colors that were present in their previous logo, so they wanted to keep that. Besides that, they wanted to fit better into the youth-organization branding sector, but had to get rid of that human figure that was very institutional looking. The real challenge was to combine all those elements and visions that a young representative organization has. A brand that showed unity, national pride, activation, movement and boldness. And to develop an entire visual system around that. But at the same time, we had to keep it simple, clean and professional looking.

The zag for this problem was to develop a typographic logo that could explode visually on different materials. We used the 3 letters of the acronym, got rid of the upper case and instead used a lower case to give it a more fresh and friendly look. We used the colors of the national flag, but tamed them a bit so it wouldn’t punch you in the face when you see it alongside 15 other logos, as their logo is always placed between many others. We created the letters as a bunch of lines combined, different, but fitting quite nicely together. Like their community. Those lines can expand a lot more, beyond limits, on other materials and create a complex visual network.

After all this effort, they now have a solid branding and visual system, integrated within the European space and values and the NGO bubble in Romania. It’s accessible, recognizable and bold. A clearer brand to connect more young people.