BrandRefugee Free is a not-for-profit organisation that was founded to support the plight of refugees seeking asylum in Australia. The main purpose of the organisation is two-fold:

1. Raise awareness for the plight of refugees

2. Work with volunteer organisations by connecting them with people in the community willing to help

Refugee Free does this by way of organising events, having a digital space that people can congregate to, campaigning for refugee rights and informing the public in an attempt to cut through the misinformation (often politically charged) that exists in this space.

Scope

Goal

This project aims to firstly assist Refugee Free in meeting these purposes by building a new digital space in the form of a website that will break down the most commonly misunderstood aspects of refugees and to help grow the organisations contact lists through the implementation of an automated subscription list.

The main goal of this new website and increase public awareness of the work that Refugee Free does and to increase the number of members willing to donate their time to volunteer organisations.

Secondary goals include clarifying the brand. This will be achieved by a robust style guide that will allow members of the public to easily identify the organisation by look and feel alone. To this end a new colour scheme, imagery and typographic language will be built in the form of a relaunched website.

CompetitionIt is important to understand what competitors in this space are doing in the market.

You can see from these 3 examples that there is a distinct lack of cohesiveness in the field of refugee volunteer organisation websites.

No real thought can be seen in how colour, hierarchy, spacing, imagery, alignment or proximity has been applied.

UI/UXFor this website build UI/UX has been considered from the foundation up. To assist with clearly communicating the organisations goals for the end user the website will be built on a single scrolling webpage with anchors.

The information is broken up into distinct “chunks” to help delineate one vital piece of data from the next. Each section is separated by a fixed image in the brand colours (yellow and black) to further highlight the brands visual identity.

To help with the stated goals interactive and animated elements have been added in the form of a countdown timer (to show easy it is to sign up and started helping now) and a modal that will take over the page and help drive subscriptions through to the emails list.

The brand colours are used throughout and the logo is implemented strategically.

ColourA simple yet striking colour palette has been implemented to aid in brand recognition in the many formats that Refugee Free will live, from press ads, billboards, shopping centre lights, GDNs, retargeted ads and other digital locations.

Yellow

Hex - #e8d91a

CMYK - 12, 7, 98, 0

RGB - 232, 217, 26

Black

Hex - #00000

CMYK - 30, 30, 30, 100

RGB - 0, 0, 0

White

Hex - #ffffff

CMYK - 0, 0, 0, 0

RGB - 255, 255, 255

TypographyThe main font for the logo (which is a word marque) is Agency FB. This is a solid san-serif typeface that is different enough from the standard Helvetica-esque look that is so prevalent that it helps with identity and brand recognition.

The copy font selected is a simple slab serif that has the benefit of being a google font (so it will work in almost all instances), is highly legible on screen as well as in print, and carries a vaguely official look and feel (like a government document) which helps in pushing the importance of the message that Refugee Free is highlighting.

InteractivitiesThere are two JavaScript components to the website.

1. A modal that helps with users signing up to the email list.

2. A countdown timer used to help users understand that signing up Refugee Free is not an onerous task.

SubscribersThe user will immediately upon signing up to the Refugee Free mailing list be emailed a thank you email highlighting what they can do and what will happen next.

This has been designed with the same design principles so the user understands that this is from the same company.

Home

Australia is a land of resources, prosperity and opportunity.

It also a land of compassion and empathy and is a melting pot of many cultures. This allows Australia to grow and advance both on a domestic level and on the world stage.

Because of this we are perfectly situated to give aide and assistance to our fellow humans that are suffering unspeakable hardships.

Who are Refugees?

‘Refugee’ is a common term that people often misunderstand. It is generally used to encompass all people who through conflict, violence, war or natural disaster are forced to leave their homes. The term ‘refugee’ has a specific meaning under international law.

The Refugee Convention (http://www.unhcr.org/en-au/1951-refugee-convention.html) has the most widely accepted legal definition as follows:

“Any person who owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his/her nationality and is unable, or owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself/herself of the protection of that country.”

This definition was first introduced around the time of World War II. Although some think its definition is too narrow does cover people affected by conflict and violence.

Most importantly it is critical to remember that refugees are people first and foremost. People that have, through no fault of their own often been subject to some traumatic event either man-made or natural.

A part of being a member of a worldwide community is accepting the responsibility to extend our hands in aide for our fellow man in times of need.

Where do refugees come from?

Thousands of refugees seeking asylum are living in Australia. Mostly this population can be broken up by means of arrival, boat or plane. The method in which they arrive can have drastic effects on the success of any asylum seeking claims a refugee submits to the Australian government. Information on people arriving by boat is more plentiful than data collected by people arriving by plane due to the nature of arrival however there is still sufficient data to show that there has been significant increase over the last 5 years.

The Department of Home Affairs (https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/) tracks data and statistics on refugees coming into Australia.

Plane

Many facts are unknown about the exact number or refugees who arrive in Australia seeking asylum. One thing we do know is that the number is increasing year on year.

Boat

This method of arrival is the most politically charged and gets the most news coverage even though it forms only a small portion of total refugees seeking asylum. There have been numerous tragedies where people have lost their lives making the dangerous trip, usually from Indonesia or Papua New Guinea

Why do they seek asylum?

In the past 20 years the number of people forced to flee their home has increase by at least 75%. But why are they leaving? Who are they and what can be done?

Website Content (900 words)

There are many reasons people must escape for flee their homeland. Often multiple reasons apply and compound to make a really bad situation even worse. These reasons include but are not limited to:

1. natural disasters 2. statelessness3. war4. famine5. domestic or gang related threats to life6. economic collapse, and 7. religious persecution.

Sometimes people are displaced by something called development-induced displacement. An example of this is the Three Gorges dam in China. This infrastructural development displaced more about 3.4 million people from their homes.

The people affected represent a broad swathe of social and economic statuses. When a dictator seizes control, the persecution is not discriminative in its nature and effects white collar professionals, blue collar, rich and poor alike.

What can we do? We can meet the minimum amount of numbers agreed upon. Australia has been involved in the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) http://www.unhcr.org/en-au resettlement program since 1977 and has consistently ranked as one of the top three resettlement countries in the world.

Your help is needed

Even with this record Australia carries more can always be done. This is where you come in.

We can end inhumane practices of holding asylum seekers in off shore detention centres (often the press is not allowed into these facilities). We can aim to be a nation of compassion and empathy and not only one that is content to meet the minimums agreed to with UNHCR (http://www.unhcr.org/en-au).

There are numerous refugee and asylum seeker resource centre organisations in Australia that accept volunteers, donations and protests you can join. If you can’t spare your time maybe you can spare your money to help these organisations continue in the good work they do to help bring a necessary spotlight to the conditions our fellow humans.

There is always something you can do.

To make this easier we’ve prepared a pack or resources that you can download that clearly outlines the actions you can take in easy to follow steps. This includes things like how to contact your local MP, the different organisations that need your help, statistics on the current state of the plight of refugees and ways you can get involved and add your voice.

To access this list simply subscribe to our newsletter and we’ll email you a link to the download as well as keep you up to date with any important news and events in your area.