Overview
Bethania is a non-profit organization in Moldova. They care for children and the elderly and prevent human trafficking by integrating the marginalized back into families and society.
Goal
Bethania’s old logo and website were poorly designed and outdated. There were several challenges:
– The new logo should get rid of the cross – even if Bethania is a Christian organization, the cross in a logo is stereotypical;
– The website should encourage and facilitate donations and volunteering initiatives;
– WordPress seemed intimidating to them and they asked if there could be an easier way for them to edit & add content to the website later.
Process
Discovery > Stylescapes > Logo Design > Research > Prototype > Web Design & Development > Test > Live > Instruct Web Manager
Logo Concept
The Logo harnesses the contrast between geometrical and organic shapes, between affliction and hope, and ultimately between form and essence. The organization has to have a formal dimension in order to survive, but it should never forget its vision and essential purpose of “visiting orphans and widows in their distress”.
Logo Design
“Bethania” means “House of Affliction”. The organization brings hope where there is none – hence the tagline “never alone”.
Color Palette
In order to keep the visual connection with the old logo I chose Olive Green colors as the main ones for Bethania. Also, the village Bethania in Israel has lots of olive and fig trees growing around.
Typography
The contrast between geometrical and organic shapes is seen in the choice of typefaces too. The organic Garamond Pro Bold is used for the logotype and titles and the geometrical FF DIN Pro Light is used for the tagline and bodies of text.
Even if the chosen typefaces are different, they still fit together perfectly because of their similar x-height.
Web Design
The website has a few strategically placed calls to action to encourage donating or volunteering.
The visitor learns progressively about Bethania’s three areas of involvement by clicking on their interconnected links on the home, about and gallery pages.
The footer area is all about getting in touch, bringing the contact form as close to the visitor as possible.
I used the user-friendly Divi theme (affiliate link) to design this website and later spent some time with a person from Bethania’s team to instruct them on how to add new content and edit existing one. Divi theme was exactly what they needed in order to pass over the intimidating parts of wordpress.
