JNRC Logo Design – Italian Refugee Center redesign

I have just completed a really cool graphic design request they are going forward with – a refreshing new logo design for the Joel Nefuma Refugee Center in Rome, Italy. Their site is here and their Facebook page is here. One of most exciting things about design and illustration work is seeing your art disseminate all over the world into places you may never expect. And the opportunity to create work for this non-profit organization that has a large, honorable purpose – well that is what life is about. Listening to the stories, and meeting the people involved with the JNRC has been so inspiring. I am so glad I could be associated with this organization.

The logo design itself comes out of several discussions with Jill Drzewiecki as well as research on JNRC itself. The ‘upside-down’ earth image is an idea from Jill herself, suggesting that the Northern Hemisphere on ‘top’ of the world doesn’t necessarily represent how the earth could have been presented. What if maps and globes were all flipped – which could just as easily have been the case? Looking at things without preconceived notions is part of a larger philosophy of the JNRC. National identity, personal identity, relating to others… these concepts can and perhaps should be challenged, but ultimately the need to make the world a better place should be an end goal, regardless of ones past. What I mean is that offering a non-traditional view of the world is certainly different, but it is also correct. A different view is a valid way to see things, even if it is new or just never seen before.

The color palette of the logo is a dark blue and a green, they are colors intentionally not strongly associated with any particular country, as the JNRC proudly accepts everyone through it’s doors.

The simple hands around the earth are a semi-universal sign of hope and are a common element in peace keeping iconography.

And just for fun I thought I’d share (at a very small size) some of the logo iterations we went through before coming to the new logo.