The living wage reflects what earners need to make in order for their household to meet its basic needs. It ensures families are not under severe financial stress, promotes social inclusion, and achieves a basic level of economic security.
A group of Londoners decided to put together information about what the living wage in London would be, and to encourage local businesses to become Living Wage Employers. We helped them by creating a brand and website to represent the cause and help spread the word, and we signed on as Living Wage Employer ourselves.
Based on our initial research and conversations with the team, we created a moodboard to encompass all the thoughts and feelings we wanted to convey with the Living Wage brand. Some of those thoughts and feelings included: hope, dignity, rising up and a bright future. Inspiration was found in graphics with vibrant colours and positive imagery.
After a discussion about the moodboard with the Living Wage London team, we focused our direction on the "rising up" and "moving forward" aspects of the board. We created our first round of composites with this in mind.
After some rough sketches and brainstorming on the page, we moved to Illustrator to start playing with typography and shapes, and create our first composites (comps).
We presented our initial designs to Living Wage London, and the reception was positive. They selected two of the logos they liked, and requested a combination of the two: the upward movement showcased by the arrow, and the softness of the sans serif font in the circled selections. In addition, they wanted to see three arrows, rather than one, in order to move closer to the Canadian Living Wage brand.
With these changes in mind, we created a few options for the Living Wage London team, incorporating all of the elements discussed.
You can see their final choice — as well as some extra collateral — below: one arrow to three, sans serif type, and rounded arrow points for a softer look that provided for a more consistent overall feel to the logo.
“Organizations that understand the social determinants of health will clearly want to provide a living wage for their employees. A decent income is the foundation on which health is built; there is no sense trying to work towards improving health if we are not going to pay a fair wage to the people we work with.”
— CHRISTOPHER MACKIE, MEDICAL OFFICER OF HEALTH AND CCHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, MIDDLESEX LONDON HEALTH UNIT