Schutzhütte Schwedt CI and Website Redesign
“Schutzhütte Schwedt is a subsidiary of the non-profit organization Tafel in combination with a group supporting people with problems with and addiction to alcohol. It’s main goal is re-integrating people from difficult backgrounds into society and providing them with a non-judgmental supporting environment.”
Previous Web Presence
Schutzhütte Schwedt started out as a support group for people with problems and addiction to alcohol and only later became a branch of the Tafel. The organization did not need a specialized web presence. For a long time their website was under construction and differed greatly from the corporate identity Tafel built for itself. However since many non-profit organizations start building a stronger web and social presence Schutzhütte Schwedt followed in their footsteps.
New Identity
To identify the important key values for the new identity of the Schutzhütte Schwedt I worked in the different divisions. Additionally I accompanied the executive director to meetings with other Tafel organizations to gain a better understanding how the branches of the Tafel differ and work together.
Values and Mission
Together with the workers and management we determined the following key values leading to the mission statement
Ressourcen (trans.: Resources)
Spenden (trans.: Donations)
Lebenskraft (trans.: Vitality/ Joy for life)
“In our organisation we discover, gather and coordinate resources, eg.: food products, consumer goods or providing a place to work. We help people in need regain their joy for life and provide them a community to regain their feet. Hopefully this leads to them giving back to said community - especially their time and help - as a resource for others.”
Elements and Colors
Logo element water drop
Resources
Water is one of the most important resource for humans especially since water makes up a majority of our planet. The color associated with water, blue, usually signifies calmness, but brighter blues can also be refreshing and friendly.
Logo element euro symbol
Donations
Money is a major resource. as well as the first thing that comes to mind, when thinking of donations. With the connection to gold it's represented by the color yellow, which is often associated with happiness and hope.
Logo element leaf
Vitality/ Joy for life
Very little personifies vitality and life like nature. As the second main color of nature (blue being the first) green generally conveys new beginnings, growth and natures ability to come back from great disasters.
Complete redesigned logo with slogan
New Website and Social Media
The concept for the new website was for the client to be able to generate and publish content for the website easily, so they decided on using Joomla as the content management system to do that. I helped the client find a pre-designed website template with the needed components.
Information and Content Architecture
The main goal of restructuring the content was to serve only relevant information to visitors. To do that I identified the possible main user groups: Partners and sponsors, politicians and local officials and of course customers. I restructured the site content to fit in the general content relevant to all user groups first. To keep the content structure flat and accessible the client and I decided to use a one-page approach with anchor navigation for the different content sections.
Social Media Presence
Most of the consumer facing content however fits better on social media, since that is the platform they mostly use. I set up a Facebook account for Schutzhütte Schwedt, where a selection of admins would be able to post content for the consumers and communicate with them. Only very minimal guidance on how to use it was required.
Business card mockup
Business Cards and More
To round out the new CI I designed digital and print templates (eg.: letterheads, presentation templates) as well as new business cards and folder spine stickers.
Insights and Learnings
General Positive Resonance
The new website and Corporate Identity received high approval from consumers, partners and local officials. The employees felt a stronger connection to the new identity and especially the new mission.
Learnings
Analyzing the traffic for the website showed, that the user group interested in client generated content did not engage with the website, but with the new social media presence instead. Generating content, such as articles, for the website proved too much work for very little reward.
Improvements for the future
This project wrapped up in 2013. Since then design principles have changed, I have grown as a designer and the client has gained insights on how their users interact with their content.
A Simpler Logo
The style chosen for the redesigned logo from 2013 has a few downsides, especially concerning printability an reusability for CI media. While I would simplify and flatten the style to fit current style and design principles, I would still keep the elements, allover silhouette and colors.
Logo redesign suggestion 2020
Information architecture restructure suggestion 2020
Reducing the Information Architecture
The Analysis of traffic and general feedback after the redesign in 2013 proves, that the information and content architecture of the website could be reduced. The website should provide general visitors, sponsors and (local) officials with information about the client. Client generated content however could be migrated completely to social media, where it would reach the intended audience.