Katie + I first met at a college student activities night in the fall of 1995 over the student environmental group’s recruitment table. So activism—especially in the realms of the environment, animal rights, and feminism—has been at the root of our relationship from its very beginnings.
Which explains the soft spot our studio has for non-profits doing good work in these realms.
One such group was California-based Feminists for Animal Rights , started in 1981. The organization expanded to a national level of activity in the years subsequent to its founding and remained active well into the 21st century, working for over two decades to end all forms of abuse against women, animals, and the earth. From their Web site:
“FAR’s major focus from its inception was on consciousness-raising—in the feminist community, in the animal advocacy movement, and among the general public. FAR sought to shine light on the connections between the treatment of women and animals under patriarchy….
FAR was not, however, just an organization with members and a mission. It was a network of women striving to live cruelty-free lives. They were committed to promoting veganism because they believed in the feminist precept that the personal is political. They knew that it was not enough to claim an abstract respect for animals; they knew they must embody that respect in their daily lives. These women advocated veganism because they thought it was desirable to work towards the elimination of all products derived from or tested on animals—in our food, clothing, household and other products and supplements.”
We were first approached to create an archival, memorial site for the no-longer-active group in 2011 by the group’s founder, Marti Kheel. The goal was to keep the legacy of the group and its mission alive while creating a resource of the articles written by the group’s member through the years. Early in the process though, Marti sadly passed away after a battle with a form Leukemia. Her sister, Jane, stepped in to finish the project for her sister, working with us to create a fitting tribute to her sister’s lifetime of work.
We took FAR’s original logo—which was relatively small and difficult to use at larger impressions without growing pixelated—and recreated it with vector art, allowing for crisper shapes and the ability to resize as needed without any loss in image quality. We then built a site framework around a watercolor version of the fox in the logo, taking the group’s brand and breathing new life into it for this online tribute. Marti’s sister then took our site files and passed them onto her WordPress developer to build out the site and its content based on our framework.
Visit Feminists for Animal Rights finished site to learn more about the decades of activism + education.
