Since founding the Community Links Charity 26 years ago, David Robinson has developed numerous projects to tackle social exclusion in east London. He had the germ of the idea for ‘We Are What We Do’ two years ago; his aim being to create a brand which would stimulate awareness around social issues and would inspire people to take action.
Marksteen Adamson, co founder of ArthurSteenAdamson, was Global Creative Director of Interbrand when he was originally asked to help develop the brand and identity for the new initiative. Since leaving Interbrand in December 03, he has continued to play an instrumental role in developing the brand.
Marksteen felt the name creation was crucial to shaping the brand and his goal was to develop a descriptor that fully defined the brand instead of creating a new and obscure name. The name he came up with ‘ We Are What We Do’ means the brand is defined only by the actions that come out of it.
Best described as a social movement, We Are What We Do, centres around lots of people doing simple things everyday to make a difference. From an initial 1500 suggestions, the team whittled the list down to 50 actions such as ‘Plant A Tree ‘ Give Blood’ and ‘Take Public Transport When You Can’. These actions are listed and described in the book ‘Change the World for a Fiver’ – designed by Tim Ashton at Antidote.
The brand identity for We Are What We Do had to fully support the message of the brand. As quoted in the Saturday Telegraph Magazine (11 Sept 04), Marksteen says ‘As it is neither a company, nor an organisation which is owned by anyone, we made it a kind of anti-brand. The less fashionable it was the better – it represents something that people should still be doing in 10, 20 years’. Marksteen’s idea was to create an identity that was sparing in its use of graphic embellishments, paper and the number of applications. Together with the team at Innocence the identity was developed; instead of creating a symbol, a copyright mark was turned on its side to make a smile, the letterhead is used on both sides and there are no business cards at all; instead representatives of We Are What We Do stamp their details onto other peoples’ business cards – to endorse the involvement of those people. As well as developing the visual identity, Adamson also created some short movies that will be shown as ‘stings’ between television programmes. The music he created for these will be performed by a mixture of different vocalist styles – from rap to opera.
To celebrate the birth of We Are What We Do, Channel 4 has commissioned a series of short films based on actions from the book, to be screened in October, and it’s hoped that the (non-financial) dividends of the venture will begin to clock up on the movement’s website from the official launch date of 30th September. Anyone who carries out an action is urged to text or e-mail the site.
It is impossible to predict the effects of We Are What We Do but this amalgam of brand and social movement has nothing less than world-changing ambition.