Human Rights Centre

The Human Rights Centre is an autonomous and independent expert institution whose task is to promote the implementation of fundamental and human rights. We were given the task to design Human Rights Centre's full visual identity, including symbol, logo and other visual assets.

Universal symbol of equality (=) was a self-evident choice for the symbol. As the symbol alone is very indistinguishable (due to its universality) a more personal text logo was designed and attached to symbol, creating a fixed, unchangeable combination. A visual pun was hidden in between the text logo and symbol: negative space creates a Finnish flag’s cross, giving the logo some extra meaning.

The Human Rights Centre is administratively connected to the Office of the Parliamentary Ombudsman so Human Right Centre's identity had to share some attributes with the Parliamentary Ombudsman's identity. The solution was to use same colours and typography — but as reversed, with different emphasis and hierarchy. For example, Parliamentary Ombudsman uses orange as a secondary colour and Human Rights Centre uses it as primary colour. Same logic applies to typographic choices.

In order to maintain a discreet and diplomatic approach using photos was not an option. Instead, illustrations were used. Ilja Karsikas from Napa Agency created a series of flexible illustrations, based on visual guidelines provided.