A Bold New Beginning

NARAL Pro-Choice America had disbanded its state affiliates to refocus its advocacy on the federal level following the Supreme Court’s 2021 decision to hear Dobbs v. Jackson. In Virginia, PCVA viewed the separation as a chance to rebrand as a more influential, inclusive, and progressive version of themselves. The comprehensive rebrand would include a new organizational name, logo, and fresh visual identity to apply to brand materials, including a future website.

Founded in Strategy

We led an intensive brand workshop to define PCVA’s audiences, assess the peer and partner landscape, and understand their collective goals and objectives. Beyond the project team, we engaged staff and board members through surveys to gain a clearer understanding of the organization’s personality and positioning. Likewise, we conferred with their outside strategic consultants to ensure that our brand work aligned with the organization’s newly-defined strategic vision.

The new brand would need to strike a balance–continuing to resonate with their existing donor base with minimal disruption, while being very clearly distinct from NARAL and shifting to attract a more inclusive, diverse, and justice-oriented audience.

Layered Meaning

Informed by our discovery work, we began the naming process. The new name would need to feel authentic in the present and remain relevant as they shift and grow through this organizational transition, this political era, and beyond. We presented a range of names spanning from more formal literal descriptions to abstract, aspirational references. Through a few thoughtful conversations and another round of surveying, we hashed out the possibilities and challenges of each approach. And then we had a name: at their 20th Anniversary Gala, PCVA relaunched as REPRO Rising Virginia (RRVA).

Repro works as a standalone term, but can be given further context as an acronym that paints a fuller picture of the organization’s focus: “Reproductive Equity, Protection, Rights & Opportunities. Rising is active and positive, echoing the language of political movements and new possibilities.

Bright Tomorrow

We presented logo options that speak to the concepts that were important to them as an organization and visualized the hopefulness and action of the “Rising” in their new name. We also sought to balance continuity with their old brand and a clear distinction from NARAL, fine-tuning our color selection to make the palette feel familiar but not similar.

The final logo includes a striking sun graphic that symbolizes optimism and progress, with 10 points to signify Virginia as the tenth US state. The heavy geometric letterforms are approachable and confident, and tightly kerned to suggest community and support. Their unexpected alignment also suggests forward motion.

A Flexible Toolkit

RRVA needed a versatile extended brand that could feel both polished and inviting, mature and youthful, radical and respectful. We set out to create a toolkit of elements and styles that could appeal to their various audiences and capture both the hopefulness and the gravity of their work.

Simple graphic backdrops in bold, inviting colors put brand messaging front and center. The brand leads with a mix of typefaces that represent diverse voices and the organization’s breadth of impact, from passionate community activism to strategic policy expertise. The type styles can be used independently or combined to create lively, layered messages, giving the RRVA team ultimate flexibility.

Launching the same month that Roe was overturned, REPRO Rising hit the ground running with the new brand–leveraging their brand visuals to create an impactful range of materials and outreach.

The website

Next up, we worked with their team to strategize, design, and build the new REPRO Rising website. The site serves as a hub for their range of audiences: allies signing up to volunteer, voters looking for details about upcoming elections and endorsed candidates, Virginians seeking local abortion resources, and donors and supporters learning more about RRVA's work and wins.

The website extends the new visual language into an interactive space, with subtle rising animations that reinforce the core concept of the brand. The mix of typefaces and colors, accented with handdrawn elements and graphic suns, keeps the site feeling approachable and inviting.

Versatile modules allow the site to keep pace with the ever-evolving challenge of protecting reproductive freedom in Virginia and beyond.

We're proud to have been part of this work at such a critical time in the fight for reproductive freedom. We're also proud that our collaboration on REPRO Rising's new name, brand, and website won a 2023 Anthem Award! The website is also a Webby Award Honoree.

VISIT THE SITE
REPRORisingVA.org