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Wednesday, November 20, 2013

How Mumbai based NGO, APNALAYA India, can leverage its logo better.

APNALAYA India - is a Mumbai based NGO that has been working relentlessly for the betterment of lives... "Building self-sustaining communities since 1973."

Their activities are governed by the principle and philosophy of encouraging ordinary men and women to believe in themselves and in their abilities to change their life (lives) for the better. 

To know more about them and their operation, you can visit their website: http://apnalaya.org/ 

In case this little piece of information helps, then for your kind knowledge, Ms. Annabel Mehta - who is none other than Sachin Tendulkar's mother-in-law - is the President of APNALAYA. 

Now, coming back to the crux of the matter, in light of marketing communication, I think they are doing pretty good, but not going overboard to use social work as a PR trumpet for that matter. 

If I consider this NGO as a Social Brand, certainly, its tone and content of communication draws respect rather naturally. Whatever they are communicating, they are doing that very smoothly with a touch of sophistication, dignity, integrity and ease that is neither heavy on mind nor coming across as bragging. All through, the poise and balance is very well maintained by them. 

However, I am not very convinced with their existing and new logo unveiled by Ms. Anjali Tendulkar. 



No doubt, visually this logo is very good, so are its colour connotations, but, when it boils down to complementing the payoff: "Building self-sustaining communities since 1973", in my humble opinion, it's failing and falling short. 

From the said logo, the essence of neither Apna(pan) nor Communities is really coming out. Though, yes, it's duly and aptly substantiating the words: 'Alaya' (Home / Asylum / Shelter / Refuge) and 'self-sustaining'. Somewhat, to me at least, the warmth, the resilience, the sweetness of sweat and the perseverance are missing in the logo. Basically, those are the virtues that make 'rags to riches' possible. Hence, the logo of a Social Brand that heralds a change for the better in and across society should ideally be more promising, direct and communicative. 

Give this, I have prepared a logo, so as to convey the entire value proposition of APNALAYA. Please look below where I have shared the scratch version of it:



In this logo, I have created the honeycomb in yellow in the form of a flower to establish a direct relation between APNALAYA and Slums on the basis of transformation that APNALAYA wants to happen and makes sure it does through hope, optimism, positivism, mind and intellect. The honeybees, I have used to express how 'self-sustaining communities' are built by the warmth, the resilience, the sweetness of sweat and the perseverance. I wrote APNALAYA in blue to denote trust and peace, which also suggests loyalty and integrity. I introduced the green line and stretched it both ways more than necessary to offer balance and growth based on self-reliance. Then I wrote the payoff text in grey to communicate impartiality and adjusting nature of APNALAYA.

Frankly, I am not sure whether it's possible for them to change their current logo. Nevertheless, I thought it's my duty to try to support them the way I can. 

So, I tried. 

If that helps them, I would be very happy and delighted!

Thanks for reading! 

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