Amna (formerly Refugee Trauma Initiative) brand identity and website

  • Paul Tunnicliffe

Amna are experts in supporting the mental wellbeing of displaced communities and do invaluable work enabling refugees to rediscover ‘feelings of joy and belonging’. Amna began as Refugee Trauma Initiative in 2016, when some 13,000 refugees became stranded on the border of Greece and North Macedonia. Setting up a single tent they started to provide urgently needed therapeutic sessions for people who had experienced violence, displacement and torture. Their network has since expanded to support refugees in nine countries across Europe and in Pakistan. We were chosen to help develop a new brand identity that could support Amna’s vision ‘to grow their organisation and partnerships across the world, freeing more refugees to determine their own futures’. Together we refined their brand strategy, developed a new name and brand identity system. Amna means safe and caring in Arabic, and was chosen to better reflect their values, work and the communities they serve. Designed to express feelings of joy and creativity the new Amna logotype is supported by a bright optimistic colour palette, a distinctive hand-written headline font and bespoke paper cut illustrations by Polly Lindsay. The new name and brand identity are intended to shift focus from the negatives of trauma, to the more positive benefits of Amna’s transformational work. Alongside the brand identity we also designed and developed a new website, brand identity guidelines and templates.