Riley McGaff is an Creative Director, Multidisciplinary Designer, Photographer & Illustrator in Seattle, WA.
War Against Racism
Creative Direction // Art Direction // Brand Design // Website Design // Strategy
WAR is a non-profit whose mission is to combat racism, gender inequality and religious intolerances. When we started working with WAR they had just been founded, so we built the branding from the ground up, from logo and type selection to website design and brand collateral.
Branding
The WAR logo is supposed to represent an insignia, much as you would see on a military's coat of arms and on their uniforms. We wanted to juxtapose the idea of waging a war against inequities but also send a message of peace because WAR is extremely strategic and ultimately is working for a better world. To achieve this juxtaposition we used visual language often associated with aggression, bold reds, insignias, highlighting the word WAR, with depicting symbols of peace, the dove, olive branches, the globe, etc.
The colors are red, blue, and purple as both the red and blue have a different connotation in regards to energy level and purple is often associated with royalty, level-headedness and other qualities that help offset the other more aggressive attributes.
