WASH Advocates was a nonprofit, nonpartisan initiative dedicated to helping solve the global safe drinking water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) challenge. In 2012, I was their communications director and tasked with creating a new brand for the initiative, including a logo.

I wanted a look that was different from the existing global water and sanitation looks (water drops or waves), but that still looked like part of the WASH coalition. It was also important for me to spell out the acronym since very few people know what it means and I didn’t want them to think of the verb “to wash.”

I was inspired by the font “Birth of a Hero,” partly because of the name, but also the great grunge aspect — unusual to see anything with rough edges in the water world.

I had to “de-grunge” around the outside of the lettering so that it wasn’t too distracting as a logo, but I increased it on the inside to be able to show a different shade of blue, which to me resembled a calm sea with choppy waters underneath. The black and white version does not have the  undertone; the grey would have looked too muddled.

I kept the grunge theme for the website background.