Do We Look Different Today?

Late one night in November 2009, just before David and Colin were heading to Ghana to kick-off our first “books for all” pilot, our extraordinary web designers at Rassak Experience sketched out our logo. It was simple, effective, and to the point. In many ways, that logo represented how we work. We had to get things moving quickly and efficiently, in a flexible, no-nonsense way.

While those ideals still hold, Worldreader has reached another inflection point in its development. Having hit our initial milestones, we see the very real impact our programs are having on children, teachers, and families. And, we see how Worldreader has touched the global community and inspires others to get involved. We hear it time and time again: people want to help us make an even bigger impact. As an example, last November, we got an email from Fabio Caselli of Caselli Associates who asked if we were considering going deeper with our branding strategy. That email sparked a series of conversations in which the Worldreader team shared ideas and long-term goals with Fabio and his partner, Lilian. In December, Fabio presented the team with the first re-branding strategy. In January and February, they came up with two more.  All three were wildly different from each other, and each time there was some internal variance. During the last meeting, Fabio and Lilian surprised us with this, and there was an amazing moment of harmony. Colin, who had been the strongest voice against the first three logos for various reasons, said: “I absolutely love it”!  David, who was integral in choosing the Amazon.com logo, kept repeating: “These guys are bold!”

So, here it is, our new logo. What do you see? No, it’s not a blue flower (but hey, if that’s what you see, then you probably also view reading as something that blossoms thoughts, which it certainly is). For me, it’s symbolic of what I saw in Ghana: Someone completely engrossed in a book. This photo, in fact, is one of our students at Adeiso JHS.  After class, he walked out and stood at the doorway, not once looking up. He was so absorbed in reading, he didn’t even realize we were standing in front of him. His head was being filled with text, with knowledge, and the rest of the world stood still.

As we said before, the idea of bringing books to the developing world is not new. But the way that Worldreader is going about it is.  It’s a challenge to portray that we are bringing millions of electronic books, as opposed to physical books, to people who live in communities without books. Fabio and Lilian wonderfully captured that concept and strengthen our resolve to fulfill our mission of BOOKS FOR ALL!