Digital Rebrand.

The Clara Lionel Foundation (CLF) is a non-profit organization founded by Robyn “Rihanna” Fenty in 2012. The goals of CLF are to promote health and education initiatives in underserved communities around the world.

We needed to reposition CLF as an ambitious organization with a desire to drive sustainable impacts, and a track record of success. Both of these traits were true at the outset of the project, but they weren’t being effectively communicated. Also, Rihanna’s dedicated fans—her “Navy”—are young, active on social media, and ready to support “RiRi,” but a large percentage were unaware of the existence of CLF. 

It was vital for us to capture CLF’s youthful spirit while positioning it as an established, yet growing organization. We created a new logo, design language, and tone of voice that are playful and relatable, while at the same time identifiable and inspiring.

The New Face of CLF

The organization’s new identity centers on the monogrammatic “face” of CLF—a dynamic and variable logo incorporating the letterforms C and L as an homage to Rihanna’s grandparents, Clara and Lionel Braithwaite. Drawing facial features around the monogram allows us to illustrate various themes or tonality within an announcement, event, program, or initiative.

We reintroduced the brand in a set of new mission statements, capturing the importance of the issues CLF addresses. The organization is more than another charity whose focus ends at collecting money. They’re a team of activists and helpers, ready to welcome anyone interested in making a difference.

The main activation of our branding is the redesigned CLF site. Snippets of a newly articulated “CLF mandate” accompany visitors through a multimedia introduction to CLF’s principles and projects. With compelling statistics and stories of change, the site serves as a home for the new brand and an invitation to donate and “join the revolution.” 

360 Experience.

As a special project, we travelled to rural Malawi and created a 360 video experience to drive awareness around CLF’s commitment to furthering educational opportunities around the globe. In the film, we see school children go about their daily lives in an immersive 360-degrees—lining up, preparing their classroom, dancing at recess, showing us their world. 

But our 360-degree view lets us see more. As our focus shifts, poverty becomes more apparent. We see how the educational opportunities these children have can be stolen in an instant.

In a voice-over, a boy recounts his morning routine, and tells us about his parents’ belief that education is “key to all success.” We must “come together, because together is powerful.”

While underserved communities exist everywhere on earth, the audience we’re trying to reach lives in a digitally connected, socio-economically privileged space. We chose 360-video because it married immersion and digital interactivity in a way that suits both our subject and our audience. It gave us the opportunity to transport a global fan base—Rihanna’s “Navy”—into the lives of children whose minds and spirits are far more resilient than the tenuous educational opportunities the world affords them. 

Diamond Ball.

More recently, we designed a kiosk experience for Rihanna’s famed Diamond Ball that let attendees see and hear stories directly from the people CLF is helping. Each attendee was given a small card that had a photograph on its surface and an NFC chip inside. When attendees waved their cards in front of the kiosks, a video of the person on the card popped up and related a face-to-face story. And CM brought the whole experience to life: on-location filming, design, set-up, and post-event tabulation. In addition, AmEx donated a small amount of money each time an attendee swiped their card and activated a story. The experience was so popular and engaging that by the evening’s end, we reached our limit ($100,000).

Digital Rebrand.

How we designed new ways for Rihanna’s humanitarian organization to tell its story.