An Inclusive Name and Website for Canada's Largest Union
CLIENT
Unifor
SERVICES
Qualitative Research
Personas
Information Architecture
Wireframing
Moodboards
Website Design
Brand Identity Design
Communication Materials
Website Design
Social Media Design
Challenge
When the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union (CEP) and the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) merged on Labour Day weekend 2013, Canada’s largest private-sector union was born — representing 300,000 members, 800 locals and 3,000 bargaining units in more than 20 different sectors.
We worked closely with Stratcom Strategic Communications to determine a name for the union and roll out a new brand identity and website.
Solution
As Canada’s largest private union, Unifor, like any other brand, needed to maintain its integrity and communications coast-to-coast-to-coast. We surveyed members and admin to guide the strategic naming process. The final name — Unifor — was devised as a fabricated name to be used with bold colours to represent the mass of the union workforce. Pivot then worked to develop comprehensive brand guidelines and direct the website design.
With user research and collaborative worksessions with project stakeholders, the national website was designed to be fully accessible by their members adhering to AODA standards. Each section of the site is colour-coded and responsive design allows the site to be scaled up and down to fit and function well on any screen size. A microsite system was also developed to satisfy the needs of the many Locals across canada.
Impact
On May 30, 2013, we helped organize the new union’s momentous name unveiling event, and created a launch video to reveal the new name to the public. The hashtag #unifor quickly became the number one trending hashtag in Canada on Twitter that day. Our social media outreach efforts (Facebook, Twitter, Youtube) were considered an enormous success.
Beyond the launch event and website design, we:
- designed communication collateral and swag,
- created an advertising campaign for the union’s Young Workers group
- developed a strategy and design for the Toyota organizing drive campaign
- And many more ongoing design initiatives over the years following the launch
LINKS
Visit the website: Unifor.org
“Creating a name and brand identity for our new organization while still unformed posed a real challenge. Pivot brought a wealth of experience and insight to the project, backed up by rigorous research and an incredible amount of creativity. At every step, we were impressed by how Pivot presented us with many different and divergent options, always making thoughtful recommendations as to the best way to proceed. We are so pleased with the result. Iembodies the values we’re trying to express as the new trade union Unifor: bold, open, strong, and decisive. We’re really looking forward to working more with our new visual identity and face to the world.”
“Working with Pivot Design on this complex project was an outstanding experience for the StratCom project team from start to finish. Pivot staff members were generous with their professional expertise, collaborated closely with the client team to design a brand identity process carefully tailored to their needs, brought tremendous creative energy and talent to the table, and responded with speed and grace to every new demand or deadline. As always, Pivot listened carefully and built its creative efforts on a deep understanding of the needs and vision of the new union.”
“To the Stratcom and Pivot Team: you knocked it out of the park! Thanks for your work— history will be made next week (at the public launch) with a new union name in Canada and I want to take the opportunity to say what a pleasure it has been to work with all of you.”