The who
WaterAble
A not-for-profit professional network for disabled people and their allies in the Victorian water sector.
My role
Visual Design | Graphic Design | UI/UX
Tools
Illustrator, PowerPoint
The problem
WaterAble started accepting associate membership requests from people outside of Victoria, due to its unique offering (which until now has been only available in Victoria). WaterAble felt its website didn’t reflect its recent growth and didn’t present itself as professionally as it should moving into a national landscape.
WarerAble founder and GWW (Greater Western Water) board member, Llewelyn Praine, and WaterAble chair, Donal Hughan, approached me to update the WaterAble website. They wanted it to be more accessible with better navigation, and overall more aesthetically professional.
The solution
Already familiar with WaterAble’s brand, I knew that an updated website using existing branding wouldn’t work. I proposed a full holistic brand uplift for all user touchpoints:
a new logo
new EDM headers
new social media assets (profile and banner images)
new Zoom/Teams meeting backgrounds
PowerPoint slide deck
A holistic uplift would allow a more consistent and professional user experience.
New logo
The old WaterAble logo was rudimentary. To look more professional in a national landscape, it needed to be updated. I didn’t want to stray too far from the original logo idea - that it takes one drop to start many ripples, which is essentially what WaterAble is all about (making positive change in the industry).
The client asked, “Why is Able bolded and in black?” I advised that WaterAble is a group for disabled people, and their purpose is all about “abling” disabled people in the water sector. “Able” is what they do at their core, so I wanted it to have the most weight. The ‘Able’ in the logo is a blue-black, which is softer on the eyes and not as harsh as stark black.
Feedback on logo iterations “The font is too relaxed” and “The icon makes it look like a gas company” really helped shape the final version. In the end, the logo presents as more professional than the original, using strong/dependable font and unique gradient colours to give the water drop/ripple icon more life and interest.
WaterAble received CMYK (EPS/JPG/PNG) | RGB (EPS/JPG/PNG/SVG) versions of the following logotypes:
Standard Horizontal Logo
Vertical Logo
Brandmark
Wordmark
Logos were provided in black, teal, full colour, light teal and white.
Creating the new brand look-and-feel
The original proposed designs for the website part of this uplift project contained photography in the header and homepage, however, WaterAble liked an illustrated image they were currently using as their socials and asked for this illustration look-and-feel instead of photographs.
I found the original Illustrator file from freepick.com. I felt the characters all had the same skin colour and didn’t really reflect any real-world diversity (other than the physical disabilities).
I manipulated the characters using Illustrator to create more diversity (eg more diverse skin tones, and religions) to help evoke a sense of diversity and inclusion at WaterAble.
This illustration choice helped shape the look and feel of the new branding direction.
EDM headers
New EDM headers extend the brand to members inboxes and give each email an identity.
Social media assets
New profile pictures and page banners extend the brand on social media.
Zoom/Teams backgrounds
Having attended WaterAble meetings before this project I knew these assets needed correcting. Their original Zoom/Team meeting slides lacked hierarchy consideration, so logos were becoming obstructed.
Final Zoom/Teams meeting backgrounds were designed to have branding assets visible when a person is placed at the centre of the screen. These backgrounds were supplied as images to use right away, and also inside a PowerPoint deck so that WaterAble could easily add co-branded logos when needed without the need to use a design program.
Final designs for the Zoom/Teams online meeting background images:
PowerPoint slide deck
I wanted WaterAble’s brand to extend to online or in-person presentations. I created a PowerPoint slide deck with templates they can replicate and input straight into so they can have confidence they are representing their brand when speaking or presenting at events, conferences and meetings.
The outcome
WaterAble’s new uplifted brand went live in December 2022 at the same time as its newly uplifted website. Llewllyn’s feedback assured me that the desired outcome had been realised:
“With the new website and new branding, I really feel like we have the right collateral to match our presence now in the industry.”
It’s a thrill to see WaterAble’s new brand come to life. They are using my provided assets to create their own collateral, eg: using the logo brandmark to create a dynamic “Certificate of completion” for one of their programs.
