outskirts – branding & campaign

Student Work (Red River River College)

project

Research and gather pertinent information about a social issue that struggles with a communication problem. Then create a logo, brand toolkit, and campaign for the social issue. Outskirts is a fictitious organization that advocates for rural Queer people in Manitoba and amplifies their voices.

design rationale: branding

Outskirts is a unique organization doing valuable work in rural communities so that Queer people can be recognized as valued, accepted, and celebrated members of the community. Outskirts needs a cohesive brand that reflects its values, objectives, and unique position in serving rural communities. As an emerging organization, their initial needs will be a logo, website, and social media design as well as an awareness campaign.

The branding for Outskirts is open and friendly. The brand uses a wide range of colours to convey the range of emotions required by an organization that addresses a serious problem. These colours are inspired by different aspects of the prairie landscape from wheat fields to winter evenings to the pleasant surprise of a ripe berry. The brand typefaces, Lato and Merriweather, are both open source to save the organization money for their branding. Lato is a clean, sans-serif typeface, while Merriweather is a readable serif.

Outskirts has strong political values and brings an intersectional approach to their branding. Queer people have a long history of using symbols, icons, and codes to mark safe spaces and people, express their identities, communicate with each other, and be visible to the world. Queer visibility is always political thus Outskirts’ branding including its use of symbols and iconography is political. As a brand, Outskirts aims to use symbols and icons with the knowledge of their history and with consideration to how they may appear to the various communities that intersect with queer communities.

design rationale: campaign

The main pieces for this campaign will be a series of installations on rural roadside attractions. Putting skirts on the larger-than-life statues around rural Manitoba draws attention to Outskirts’ campaign in a humourous and absurd manner.

The feminine stereotypes about skirts are subtly undermined by the materials used to make them. The skirt for Tommy the Turtle is made from spray-painted chicken wire, which resembles tulle from far away. Sunny the Giant Banana wears a skirt made from Carhartt overalls, a conventionally masculine clothing item worn widely by farmers. The World’s Largest Tobacco Pipe mixes masculine and feminine clothing by wearing a leather skirt, with a sheer underskirt.

All three installations are accompanied by a lawn sign version of the campaign poster, which reads “wearing a skirt isn’t shameful. skirting around queerphobia is.” These signs invite viewers to find out more about Outskirts on their website.

This campaign features two types of Instagram posts. The first type of post uses the campaign graphics and slogan to convey the message. The second type features supporters wearing skirts and/or campaign buttons. These supporters will include community leaders as well as other residents of rural areas.