Two things that stand out about a youth audience at the moment are that they are increasingly non-binary and that they want to self-curate. This project kills both of those birds with one design system. Giving girls the tools and spaces to be who they want to be.
That can bring us to the question of the role of clubs, brands and belief systems more broadly.
As religious congregations shrink, we’re left with the guise of capitalism as our organising body. But, ultimately, it’s the brands that have been establishing belief systems for those who have interest, access and/or can afford it.
Clubs are a special breed of unadulterated community. As a brand enters this space it has the same challenge and opportunity: to speak to our innate desire to express our individuality while satisfying our deep social need to belong.
A friend who is a cultural architect does an exercise with his clients and their staff called ‘Me, Us, Now’. It is intended to empower the individual by understanding their personal roles and goals, tie them into their team through empathy and shared interests, and then unite them behind a singular mission.
Beyond team building, I image the project objectives for both Collins and The Girl Scouts were pulling the organisation into the 21st century, appealing to the new Gen Z and following generations, and to give like-minded, but diverse young women a symbol of empowerment.
Crests have been a symbol of that sort of empowerment since the Middle Ages. And the Scouts’ heritage Trefoil symbol seems an obvious, but fitting answer. An authentic homage to its inception with a visual through-line from then to now.
Another aspect of heritage includes the Girl Scouts mission statement ‘prepare girls to meet the world with courage, confidence and character’. Personality-wise, you can see how the three personality traits come together in TOV, speaking in a self-assured tone that can be mirrored and modelled by the young recruits themselves.
