It has been more than two years since the First Course on Bat Ecology, Diversity, Conservation, and Ecosystem Services in Mombasa, Kenya in January 2020. More than two years since the foundation of Global South Bats (GSB), which so far consists of a fairly small group of bright and motivated bat researchers, conservationists, and students from 26 countries. During the last days of the course, the organizers and students agreed to stay connected and form an ever-expanding network of self-sufficient bat researchers and conservationists from the Global South. The mission and vision of GSB started to take shape.
The original ambassadors and coordinators at the closure of the first GSB course in Mombasa, Kenya.
Since then, GSB has gone through some defining moments. During the last two years, we created our website to state clearly our purpose and motivations, and to bring forth our members and their stories. In the process, we defined our brand and logo, which embodied what we had in mind for our future. Multiple and colorful bats stamped our logo to symbolized conjoined efforts from people from different backgrounds.
Some aspects of the original style of the GSB brand. A simple black theme permeated the website, and colorful bats, representing different nations, illustrated the original logo.
“Bring together bat conservationists, promote knowledge exchanges and cooperation across the Global South to better protect and conserve biodiversity.”
We wanted to make sure everybody understood that, although our end goal is to facilitate bat conservation and research in the Global South, our network is mostly about people; about motivating them, and finding ways of making them work together. And it is precisely due to this need to aggregate people that we are finally ending this two-year-long hiatus to perform our official website launch. We will start opening up the network for new people and begin working actively on our goals. And for that, we thought we needed a fresher and more professional new look. A large part of our target audience are young and motivated students and early career bat researchers, and we wanted our new brand to transmit a bright, radical, yet focused energy. With the help of our creative partner from makegood Becky Alford, we are looking bolder and livelier than ever.
“We began the brand process with a questionnaire, discovering Global South Bat’s personality, attributes, success stories and their audiences needs. We also reviewed brands within the sector and what could be improved with their current brand.”
How would the current members like GSB be perceived as an organization? Becky Alford raised that question and made sure that our new design represented our desire to look fresh and innovative.
During this process of renewal, first emerged our new, refined logo. It retains key aspects of the previous one, such as the colorfulness to represent diversity and the sense of community, but enhanced with more vibrant tones and a playful, less rigid design.
The new style permeates the entire website. Complementary colors and Interconnected lines form icons and map graphs to symbolize union and the faces of our members are stamped throughout the website, helping to amplify their voices and to make new potential members feel related to us.
The new GSB logo will be displayed on our website and all social media platforms. It takes a big leap forward in relation to the previous, simpler design, and transmits the essence of the organization with an eye-catching design.
“The three different bat species are flying together across the Global South, showing synergy and collaboration. The three complementary colours, show diversity and add vibrancy against a dark back-drop. The logo font is more contemporary and the type is flexible in the way it adapts to different applications e.g. the website and social channels.”
With our new branding, we wish to start this new phase of GSB anew. To be approachable, friendly, and relatable. However, changes are not only in style, as the upcoming GSB official website will include many novel features, including news about the next bat courses, how to be part of the network, and several assets and advantages for future members. Stay tuned for news!
