UN WOMEN
Gender equality.
This generation.
We gave UN Women’s flagship gender equality campaign a bold, intersectional identity to unite a fractious movement and demand global action.
Services
Campaign Strategy
Messaging
Visual Identity
Brand Guidelines
Campaign Strategy
Messaging
Visual Identity
Brand Guidelines
Ultravirgo project team
Marina Csomor
Patrick Durgin-Bruce
Benjamin Tuttle
Marina Csomor
Patrick Durgin-Bruce
Benjamin Tuttle
UN Women is the United Nations entity dedicated to gender equality and the empowerment of women. Twenty-five years after the landmark 1995 Beijing Declaration set the world's most comprehensive agenda for women's rights, no country had yet achieved gender equality, and UN Women set out to change that with a generation-defining global campaign.
CHALLENGE
One movement, many voices
Women and men have worked for generations to protect and empower women, girls, and non-binary people, yet not a single country can claim gender equality. UN Women asked us to create a campaign identity that could connect the everyday activists rising up today with the advocates who have stood against sexism for decades and unify an enormous range of activities, from high-level diplomatic forums to public-awareness campaigns, under a singular campaign brand.
key insight
The issues are intersectional. The identity should unite.
Gender equality doesn't exist in isolation; it's bound up with economic justice, climate, health, peace, and more. Rather than reach for cultural symbols or literal iconography, we found our visual logic in that interconnection itself — blending the colors of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals into vibrant gradients that make intersectionality visible. The name and themeline “Gender equality. This generation.” are a rallying cry and a deadline in one: a demand that our generation — inclusive of everyone, from youth to elders — be the one to finally achieve gender equality.
THE BIG IDEA
Gender equality. This generation.
Two voices, infinite variety
We built a flexible system with two distinct tones united by vibrant color and confident messaging: one clean and professional for high-level meetings and official documents, the other unabashedly bold and energizing for public activism. One campaign, two voices, endless range.
Gradients that carry meaning
Blending the iconic SDG logo's color wheel – representing the range of development issues – into fluid gradients gave the campaign a signature look, while embodying the core idea that development issues are inherently intertwined.
The logomark itself references the iconic peace dove from the original 1995 World Conference on Women in Beijing designed by Valerie Pettis, with the beak pointing toward the slice for SDG 5 “Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.”
The logomark itself references the iconic peace dove from the original 1995 World Conference on Women in Beijing designed by Valerie Pettis, with the beak pointing toward the slice for SDG 5 “Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.”
Connecting past and present
Social graphics pair historic figures from the feminist movement with today's leaders, framing the campaign as the continuation of a decades-long fight.
A declaratory tone of voice
Bold "We are…" and "We demand…" messages — freedom from violence, environmental justice, economic opportunities, access to health, equal participation in decision-making — invite personal identification and turn key demands into shareable statements.
Built to travel
We delivered clear graphic standards and a toolkit that empowered UN Women's internal communications and social teams to create on-brand posts, videos, presentations, infographics, Instagram filters, merchandise, an exhibition at UN headquarters, and much more — across six official languages and a global network.
IMPACT
A campaign that became a movement
The identity proved durable enough to anchor a five-year global action agenda as Generation Equality grew into the centerpiece of UN Women's communications. The high-level action centered on the Generation Equality Forum in Paris – the largest gender-equality gathering since Beijing in 1995, watched by almost 135,000 people – where stakeholders made over 1,000 policy, program and financial commitments. Over the following three years, a record-breaking USD 50.3 billion in gender equality commitments had been reported, with over 3,500 new or expanded partnerships formed.
$50 billion committed
1,000+
policy commitments
policy commitments
3500+
new partnerships
new partnerships
