Mark Studio brands the empowering charity Walk Through Walls

Unicef estimates that 1.2 million children are trafficked worldwide every year, while the International Labour Organization (ILO) estimated there were 20.9 million victims of forced labour across the world in 2012. To end this a new charity initiative set up by global law firm Baker & McKenzie and the Thomson Reuters Foundation, Walk Through Walls plans to offer practical help to survivors of what is effectively modern slavery.

Manchester’s Mark Studio has created the visual identity for Walk Through Walls. Mark worked with Scott Perry on the naming and Lindsay Camp on the brand narrative, while Soleto typeface was used for the turquoise-colored logo and associated typography.

“Survivors of human trafficking don’t want sympathy. What they really need is practical help in building new lives for themselves – and, particularly, in getting started on rewarding and successful careers,” says Walk Through Walls.

“Why Walk Through Walls? Because we wanted the name to reflect how the charity helps incredible people who have come through an unimaginably terrible ordeal to achieve the seemingly impossible,” adds Mark Studio. “The tone and style is meant to be positive and upbeat, with survivors never cast as victims or damaged goods”.

Mark Lester, founder at Mark Studio, says the philosophy of the charity is to provide survivors with “practical help in building new lives for themselves”, rather than “sympathy”.

The all-caps and bold sans-serif brand identity is divided by white space “walls” giving visuals to the message that moving forward is the only option to stay alive and be free. “It’s a visual interpretation of people overcoming obstacles and moving forward in life,” says Lester. “The words are interrupted but still legible –crucially, it’s about moving past an interruption as if it’s not there” he told  Design Week. As for Soleto, he attributes the choice to “not austere or perfect” qualities of the typeface.

Mark Studio took on the project 14 months ago, after previously completing work for the corporate responsibility department at Virgin reports DW.

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