JA Brand Project
Through an engagement with BrandPie, a London- and New York-based brand consultancy, and Eizner Design, a Tokyo-based design firm, we spent more than a year listening to staff, alumni, board members volunteers, teachers, funders, and students, who set the groundwork for our modernized brand, one that is digital-friendly, modern, youth-forward, and that matches our emerging vision of the world, in which young people have the skillset and mindset to build thriving communities.
After months and months of discovery, focus groups, crowdsourcing, brainstorming, and a whole lot of creative design, we’ve officially entered the implementation phase. If you’re a JA staff member, you can find everything you need on our OneJA internal platform. If you’re externally positioned to JA, visit jaworldwide.org/brand. Thanks for all your participation and support as we modernize our beloved, icon global brand.
Watch or Listen to Project Updates
Our goal throughout the JA Brand Project has been not to have a “big reveal” moment, but, instead, to keep everyone informed along the way. JA Worldwide CMO Tere Stouffer hosted 30-minute calls twice a month, sharing all the new developments, updates, and drafts since the previous meeting.
April 6: Scope of the project; project timeline | Video recording | Audio recording
April 22: Focus group information; Tagline Contest timeline | Video recording | Audio recording
May 4: Focus group dates; why we’re doing this project in the first place! | Video recording | Audio recording
May 20: Three new focus groups added; high-level findings from first four focus groups | Video recording | Audio recording
June 8: How to participate in focus groups; more findings; first look at go-forwards for the brand; small update on the Tagline Contest | Video recording | Audio recording
June 24: Tagline Contest launch date; brief update on focus group responses and reminder about three final focus groups | Video recording | Audio recording
July 6: How to promote (and enter!) the Tagline Contest; what focus groups and interviews are telling us about JA brand messaging | Video recording | Audio recording
July 22: Creative work is beginning; brief update on tagline contest; brief update on vision-statement work | Video recording | Audio recording
August 19: Update on creative work, with a special emphasis on messaging and translation | Video recording | Audio recording
September 7: Very first look at prototype Vision Statements, Values, taglines, and symbols! | Video recording | Audio recording
September 23: We’ve landed the vision! We’ve landed the values! What’s coming next? | Video recording | Audio recording
October 21: See our final three logo options and final three taglines. Find out how to participate in the testing/feedback phase. And see the schedule for the remainder of the JA Brand Project! | Video recording | Audio recording
October 25: As we head into GLC, the JA Global Leadership Conference, this 20-minute update takes you from the beginning of the project to our three logo choices and three tagline choices.
Live from GLC (the JA Global Leadership Conference) in November!
The Process: Interested in how we researched the project, how we included our large global network, how we crowdsourced a portion of the creative work, how we gathered feedback, and how we tested? This video is for you!
The JA Network Speaks: We’re narrowed our options, based on a three-week-long feedback process. Find out how what the network told us and what comes next.
December 9: Recap of the many presentations and updates during the Global Leadership Conference | Video recording | Audio recording
December 21: First look at the new Brand Guidelines! | Video recording | Audio recording (probably want to go with video for this one)
January 6: Which design elements we’re still working on, how we’ll work within the Canva platform, decisions made so far about “fixed” versus “flexible” components of the Brand Guidelines | Video recording | Audio recording
January 18: Lots of progress on final designs, including three logo lockups in various shapes and sizes and new collateral. We also discuss accessibility and its implication on the color palette. And JA locations find out how to place an order for custom collateral, so that we get the name of your JA office—and any translations you may need—ready in time for the brand launch. | Video recording | Audio recording
February 3: JA has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, but the JA Brand Project continues! The new brand guidelines (currently in its 18th version) is nearing completion. We discuss the timeline and requirements of the new brand rollout and share the results of our accessibility testing of the new branding. | Video recording | Audio recording
February 15: Color palette is final; font size of lockup is going to increase slightly; new icons are here for your review. And, if you’re a JA location, be sure to order your collateral, enter your photos for the JA Global Brand Photo Library, and sign up for one of the launch webinars! | Video recording | Audio recording
THE LAST ONE: March 3: Collateral-delivery schedule and status, the upcoming brand webinars, the final brand guidelines, etc. | Video recording | Audio recording
Check Out These Brand Project FAQs!
Got a few questions that the materials above don’t answer? Perhaps these answers to FAQs will help.
+ Why are we doing a brand project?
Brands age over time. Most brands need to refresh every 10 to 20 years just to stay relevant, and changes to messaging usually happens every year . . . sometimes more often than that. Although our fundamentals remain the same, JA has changed a lot since the inception of the current triangle in 1986. So has the world. It was time to examine whether our current logo, lockup (that’s the logo + our name + tagline), messaging, and branded elements are resonating with our potential audiences and take the opportunity to update to a modern, tech-forward, youth-friendly brand.
+ Will JA offices that don't have "JA" in their name need to change their name?
No. That was never the objective of the JA Brand Project. Although it might be easier for our network to harness funding and PR opportunities if we’re a globally recognized brand (with every location’s name a variation on a global standard), this project is not intended to transition the name of any JA offices that do not use JA in their name.
+ Given that there is a new symbol and lockup, will we need to change our signs, business cards, and letterhead?
Yes and no. Over the next three years, the xpectation is that your signage and collateral will reflect that new lockup and new messaging. That said, waiting until you run out of business cards is fine. Hanging onto an expensive sign (possibly forever) is equally fine; in fact, it's one of the reason our symbol still has a triangle shape and our primary colors still include JA green, to help build a bridge between the previous symbol and the modernized one. In order to support your transition, we're cranking out as much collateral as possible, available over on our staff web portal, OneJA.
+ Who did the work?
We took a highly inclusive approach to collecting input from the JA network, with multiple focus groups, weekly update meetings, and extensive stakeholder consultation. Global brand work is expensive, and we were fortunate to get an in-kind contribution from one of the world’s leading branding agencies, BrandPie, that paid for half of the work.