World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts
Charity
Branding

A bold, youthful brand for any and every girl across the world

For over a hundred years, the Girl Guides and Girl Scouts has been the only global volunteer-led movement dedicated to any and every girl. In 146 countries, across cultural, religious, social and ethnic diversity, the Movement empowers ten million girls and young women to be the best they can be. The World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS), is its central body.

After partnering with the movement to strategically review and define its purpose and value proposition, we began work on a new brand system that would better reflect the breadth and energy of the girls’ groups they existed to support.

Modernising to support more girls, globally

2015 was a crucial year for WAGGGS. Motivated to modernise its offer to better support its member organisations, so it can provide more safe spaces to even more girls, WAGGGS came to Moving Brands to develop a vibrant brand with a clear purpose.

Time around the campfire

As a globally diverse, volunteer-powered member organisation, it was critical that we spent time getting to know the movement and WAGGGS. We spoke with representatives from around the world and met with packs of Brownies and Girl Guides. We looked at the challenges WAGGGS faces today and the opportunities a more vibrant brand could unlock.

Guiding in the 21st century

Working with its worldwide volunteers and leaders, we defined the role of WAGGGS and the purpose of the Movement. Its essence (‘creating capable, fair and daring girls’) and the role of WAGGGS (to keep the Movement ‘thriving, united and growing’) was encapsulated in a brand story, which expresses the transformational impact Guiding & Scouting has on everything a girl defines as ‘her world’.

At home in sub-saharan Africa as in the digital world

Spending time with the Movement and WAGGGS also helped us to define the approach to the visual identity. The Movement has an illustrious heritage that is bound up in the Trefoil. The symbol has come to represent the strong bond that is felt by Member Organisations, volunteers and the girls that attend weekly pack meets across the world. Acknowledging the strength of feeling that the Trefoil elicits in all who are united by it, we opted to retain the symbol as it stands, choosing instead to radically transform the system around it.

The identity needed to be equally at home in sub-saharan Africa as in the digital world. A flexible system ensures that no matter the constraints on production, the visual identity would always be fit for purpose.

The colour palette was refreshed and augmented to reflect the youthful exuberance of the girls who make up the core of the Movement. A series of patterns — built using elements of the trefoil — were developed to enable the identity to be adapted and expressed differently in different regions. A bold typographic approach, together with a series of simple illustrations, help to tell stories of the journeys girls take through the Movement and beyond.