Badges of Honor

Established in 2001 by Andrew and Nicola Forrest, Minderoo Foundation is an independent, forward-thinking, philanthropic organization in Australia, and one of the country’s largest with AUD$1.5 billion committed to various issues that range from achieving indigenous parity to abolishing modern slavery to eliminating cancer. “Minderoo”, if you are wondering as was I, is an Aboriginal word meaning permanent and clean water. With over 90 staff in six international offices, the foundation supports and funds early-stage innovation, develops major programs on the ground in communities, and advocates for change at domestic and international policy forums. Recently, Minderoo Foundation introduced a new identity designed by Sydney, Australia-based Re.

To encapsulate this determined, innovative spirit, the Minderoo brand uses the symbols and language of protest. The circular logo is inspired by protest badges. The badge becomes a unifying device across all its sub-brands, transforming a complex house of brands into a simplified master brand architecture. The horizon line used in the device carries across to the design system, creating a pragmatic and unifying brand.

Re project page

Born from the red plains of the Minderoo Station, the Forrest family’s property in the Pilbara, the colour palette is earthy yet bright. Rich natural hues ground Minderoo’s message, while blocks of colour give flight to promise.

Re project page

The old logo was relatively okay with the abstract shapes conveying some sort of community effort around something Australian-ish; I would normally say the gradients didn’t help but I think in this case they helped make the shapes more ambiguous because as a single-color logo that might have been too harsh/weird a graphic. The wordmark was definitely less okay not only because spacing out lowercase is rarely a good thing but it was very badly kerned. The new logo is much more concise, less ambiguous, and has a kind of warning-sign vibe that gives it a sense of urgency. At first, one wonders why the top half is so heavy and the bottom half so light, with the full name crammed on top but once the sub-brands populate the bottom half, the layout of the logo makes more sense. Even if the bottom never got populated I really like the tension when it’s empty and how it looks like a rising/setting sun. The type on the circle is good but “MINDEROO” is certainly hard to make work seamlessly on it — the “M” is a little stiff — but it gets the job done. For the initiative sub-brands I keep wanting their names to be bold as well but I can also appreciate the contrast. I’m not crazy about the secondary color palette, varying between really bright and really muted colors. Nonetheless, I really dig the logo for its simplicity and boldness.

The identity introduces a number of illustrated badges for the different initiatives and they are done in what seems like a purposefully “naive” way, like something you would find in a 1950s public service announcement about nuclear power plants and they are indeed kind of charming but, as you’ll see in the applications, I wonder if they are a little too playful or have too much of a wink? Still, I do like how these are peppered throughout as pithy reminders of what the foundation is trying to do.

The style of protest placards informs both typography and layout. Together with the badge device, typography reinforces the feel of rallying calls for change. Thanks to the new brand, the Minderoo team now enjoy a shared identity with a more defined sense of purpose and direction. A united front for changing the world.

Re project page

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The typography and layouts are bold and clear, with large type making big statements. The fill/stroke contrast in some of the headlines looks great and the overall typographic treatments are really well done. My favorite part of the applications is how the logo sits at the intersection of a photo and a block of color — it’s sort of an obvious thing to do and that’s because it looks so good but it’s particularly nice how the logo can be anywhere on the layout.

Overall, this is a really strong redesign that gives the foundation a powerful voice to communicate in through a visual language and logo system that gives the impression that time is of the essence and action is needed now.