Antyodaya Chetana Mandal

Branding, Marketing and Website Design Case Study

Antyodaya Chetana Mandal is a Gandhian NGO focused on the upliftment of the downtrodden tribal population of Northern Odisha. Originally established to transform the lives and livelihoods of a primitive tribe named Lodhas, ACM expanded into the social development of the broader neglected community. Over an awe-inspiring journey of more than 4 decades, it has established educational, medical, and community institutions touching over 4 million lives across 300 villages….

Client: Antyodaya Chetana Mandal

Location: Mayurbhanj, India

Segment: NGO/Social upliftment

Target Audience:
Socio-economically aware allies who are willing to support social upliftment financially or through spreading awareness or through volunteering….

Keywords:
Care, Sincerity, Non-violence, Upliftment, Hospitality, Self-governance, Healthcare….

Elements Designed:
Brand identity, Design systems, Print design, Social Media, Website, Photography, Videography, Content, Research….

The Problem

Even with a massive track record of social work under the leadership of Aditya Pattnaik, ACM lacked a proper digital presence. There was no place to interact with it or discover its 4 decades of history….

The Solution

We traced the rich history of the NGO, researching and documenting its contributions to society. We consolidated the documentation into a website giving them a digital presence and accessible archive. We developed a brand language and design system for ACM’s digital and physical communications. Following these, we also set up their social media and community channels for active interactions. These efforts modernized Antyodaya Chetana Mandal and brought forward their inspiring story in front of the public…..

The Results

Having a public digital platform helped ACM showcase its inspiring journey and scale up the efficiency of its outreach programs. This brought more eyeballs and support to the hard work they are putting into the social upliftment of an entire region…..

The Brand Palette

Being an organization rooted in the upliftment of the downtrodden, ACM’s colour palette is largely monochromatic. Beyond the Black and White, the NGO dazzles in Blues and Reds. The Blues express the element of trust and hospitality Antyodaya Chetana Mandal works with. The Reds on the other hand evoke the elements of urgency and necessity of the developmental efforts ACM works on. One of the ways we used the Blues and Reds a lot is in the form of duotones to make use of the documentation of the impact they’ve brought. This further helped in showcasing an emotion of authenticity.

The Brand Typography

Our typeface of choice for the NGO Antyodaya Chetana Mandal was Barlow. It is a sans-serif typeface that has a readable profile which is more condensed than most sans-serif typefaces. Its somewhat Grotesque style is pleasant to read both on the screen and in print. This helps make ACM’s communications very accessible to its target audience without looking very generic or too similar to everything else.

The Brand Iconography

Researching, designing, and developing a website to represent 40 years of the NGO’s journey was a key part of the project. So, for brand elements of Antyodaya Chetana Mandal, we focused on designing a custom set of icons that covers different aspects of the brand. We went with a flat style to make the icons cross-platform accessible. We chose a circular form to match ACM’s legacy logo and of course, the primary version of the icons set is in the brand colours of blue, black, and white.

The Print Designs

Being an NGO that primarily works in the rural background, print is an important medium for Antyodaya Chetana Mandal. Distributing promotional and awareness flyers is a crucial mode of communication for the not-so-tech-savvy segment of ACM’s target audience. Besides their communications, being a legacy NGO with a long history of work, ACM is often invited to contribute to magazines and publications in print format. Designing those periodic print collaterals is still an ongoing partnership between the NGO and XAXs Corps.

A4 print magazine ad design for ACM NGO branding....

Promotional A4 flyers print design for ACM NGO branding....

Tall promotional flyers print design for ACM NGO Branding....

Merchandise Design

Many NGOs use merchandising as a tool to raise funds. Antyodaya Chetana Mandal hasn’t tapped into that potential yet. But we designed some celebratory merchandise for their child NGO hospital after completing two decades of service. We designed a t-shirt and a tote bag for an awareness campaign related to the Eue hospital….

Gandhian Tee merchandise design for NGO branding....

Social Media Branding

Let’s be honest, no one’s gonna randomly stumble onto your website. But people can stumble onto your social media pages. Moreover, social media platforms also allow your audience to interact with your organization directly. Hence having a proper social media presence is very important for any organization. But Antyodaya Chetana Mandal being a legacy NGO, didn’t have that. So we set up properly branded social media pages for ACM on Facebook and Twitter. Besides reaching their target audience this led to getting recognition from the official accounts of the government organizations the NGO works with.

Website Rebranding

Antyodaya Chetana Mandal did have a website before we started working with them. That website is still live as a symbol of respect for the sentimental value it holds. But what ACM lacked was a digital address that holds the four-plus decades of its legacy. We solved that by starting with extensive research done by Richi. After tracing the entire inspiring journey of the NGO, Aditya started to design and develop the informative website. Now whenever there’s communication with stakeholders and prospects, the new website serves as a tool to build trust and share every key information in an instant.

The Positive Response

After more than a year of collaborative effort, the whole team of Antyodaya Chetana Mandal was delighted with the result. Everyone from the founding to the managing to the workforce team was very proud and excited to see their decades of history and hard work represented digitally. Besides collecting praise from both the using and the interacting sides, our branding project for ACM was also featured by the World Brand Design Society.