Equal Justice Works

Equal Justice Works mobilizes the next generation of public interest lawyers to create a just society. Equal Justice Works struggled with presenting their complex and multi-faceted nature work in a concise, consistent, and compelling way, despite a 30-year history and proven track record. Stakeholders and audiences alike were conveying and receiving different messages about the organization, and their visual identity suffered from two different logos in circulation and a lack of a consistent color scheme and typography system. As a result, the story of the organization depended on whom you talked, and people were confused about Equal Justice Works’ core offerings and value.

That’s when Equal Justice Works turned to Teal.

Establishing the foundation for the Equal Justice Works brand

Teal’s work began with a robust research phase to obtain a comprehensive view of the Equal Justice Works brand. We needed this comprehensive understanding to determine how we could best evolve and socialize the brand to make it successful. We held a series of deep dive conversations with internal stakeholders to clearly define needs and discuss the strategy behind the brand. Teal organized in-house focus groups and work sessions to understand how staff interpreted and expressed the brand. We also gained insight into how target audiences perceive and interacted with the brand through an online survey, 1:1 interviews, and focus groups.

Teal then developed the foundational elements of the Equal Justice Works brand based on our deep research and in close partnership with the Equal Justice Works team. We compiled the brand language (core values, vision, mission, tagline, value proposition, about statement), logo, color palette, typography system, and imagery style into a brand book that Equal Justice Works staff and partners could reference moving forward.

Putting the brand to work: The Equal Justice Works website redesign

Teal then shifted our attention to the first major manifestation of the new brand – the redesign of the Equal Justice Works website. The existing Equal Justice Works website was old, outdated, and failed to reflect the vibrancy of theEqual Justice Works community or illustrate the impacts of their work. The website also had a confusing, overwhelming structure that made it challenging for visitors to orient themselves and find information and resources.

Teal also worked closely with the Equal Justice Works team to devise a content strategy that prioritized plain language and drastically streamlined the amount and presentation of content on the site. Because we also completed the brand work, Teal was  intimately familiar with the needs of target audiences and the messages that resonated most. Accordingly, the new structure of the site puts people at the heart of the organization’s work.

The new site features:

• Immediate navigation pathways for law students, prospective fellows, current fellows, host organizations, and sponsors
• Stories of current and former fellows who are the voice of Equal Justice Works and evidence of the change Equal Justice Works is creating
• Clear descriptions of Equal Justice fellowship programs with direct links of opportunities available with host organizations
• Custom infographics that explain How to Design Your Own Fellowship, How to Become a Host Organization, and How to Sponsor a Fellow with custom illustrations and loading animations
• Fully integrated calls-to-action for topic-specific email sign-ups that will automatically segment into Equal Justice Works’ CRM

Creating additional brand collateral

Teal also produced a number of Equal Justice Works print materials to round-out our full brand service offering, including:

• Organizational collateral (business cards, letterhead, envelopes)
• Slide deck template
• Templates for 1-pagers, memos, program fact sheets, and fellow profiles
• Guide books for applicants, sponsors, and hosts

The new Equal Justice Works brand premiered at a series of events in the Fall of 2018.

Earning internal buy-in and support for the brand refresh just as if not more important that gaining audience acceptance. For a brand to be successful, you need to have an army of brand advocates in-house who are committed to executing, managing, and enforcing the brand across all channels. Equal Justice Works managed this process flawlessly.

Teal Media continues to provide strategic, design, and development support to Equal Justice Works to this day.