Delightful Ethical Digital
Two women kissing at a Pride parade

Human Dignity Trust

Rebrand and website for the LGBT law organisation

How we helped

The challenge

Human Dignity Trust (HDT) is a UK-based NGO that works with LGBT activists globally, assisting them to use the law to defend the rights of LGBT people. Since 2011 they’ve worked with local activists in 18 countries to challenge and change the laws that criminalise lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender people.

However, from a brand perspective, the look and feel of their collateral didn’t echo the professional services offered, nor the openness of their staff and partners.

The brief

HDT approached Fat Beehive with a desire for their brand to reflect who they are as an organisation now: professional, approachable, modern, trusted and world-class. We helped them define their four primary audiences as donors, lawmakers, human rights activists on the ground and journalists.

They needed a complete overhaul, from the website to printed materials, to choosing new typefaces, templates and a thoughtful new logo.

Human Dignity Trust mood boards and logo explorations
Human Dignity Trust mood boards and logo explorations

Our branding approach

Our mood boarding helped define the directions to explore, referencing magazine layouts, bold and refined typefaces and clean digital layouts.

Many logo options were presented and we included the HDT team in every part of the process, from shaping ideas to giving feedback to ensure the end result met the original brief.

Our elegant solution represents confinement or persecution as a square, with one side opening, signifying freedom. This frame then becomes a brand device, able to be scaled, stretched and coloured for different assets, while maintaining recognisability.

Human Dignity Trust branding
Human Dignity Trust branding
Human Dignity trust logo
The Human Dignity Trust's new branding is inclusive, positive and professional

The sophisticated primary red wine colour is partnered with a warm stone grey, keeping the colour palette simple yet confident. The primary Human Dignity Trust typeface chosen is Spectral – an open source Google font, helping the organisation keep costs down while still maintaining a professional persona. It’s used for both the logo and icon, as well as all professionally printed assets and the website.

Map of world higlighting Sudan
Human dignity trust icon
We applied the Human Dignity Trust's new branding to a full website rebuild

The brand came to life on the website with a clean and elegant layout that’s not afraid of white space. Refined details such as the thin grey keylines add elegance and important visual separation to the design, with the red wine colour used for contrast which draws the users’ eye towards key areas.

An informative, interactive map displays the global scope of HDTs work, which cleverly collapses into accordions at mobile to improve the user experience, while subtle animations across each page add to the sophistication.

Results

102%

increase in page views

12%

increase in time on page

13%

increase in average session duration

Human Dignity Trust icon
“We've really enjoyed working with Fat Beehive to redevelop our branding and to build an elegant and powerful new website. They've really helped us to put together a new brand that reflects who we are as an organisation and speaks to our diverse stakeholders. The new website is strong and sophisticated and much better explains who we are and what we do. The team at Fat Beehive have been brilliant and patient, helping us to hit some tight timelines.”
Alistair Stewart, Senior Advocacy Adviser, Human Dignity Trust

Get in touch

Speak to us about your project, get a quote