Shield of Athena is a non-profit organization that works with victims of family violence. The organization runs an emergency shelter and offers professional services to women and children affected by family violence. They also offer support, intervention, and prevention services with a particular focus on making sure that these services are adapted to meet the needs of many of Montreal's major ethnocultural communities. Visit website
Goals
Shield of Athena needed a micro-site as well as a number of print materials to support their efforts in the area of women's rights in marriage.
a legal website that's friendly and visually appealing
areas of displaying long text content that are still easily scannable
design that extends existing brand and works in 10 languages (including RTL languages)
easy-to-use WordPress back-end for content updates
an easy "quit" button to protect visitors in hostile environments
print collaterals that are consistent with the website design
What we did
User Interface Design
Front-end web development
Wordpress web development
Graphics & Print Design
Project team
Sasha Endoh
Web Design
Extending existing branding
We started by creating a website that provides thorough information on the topic of marital rights and related questions. The website is consistent with Shield of Athena branding by adapting their original logo to the site’s name and extending their corporate colour scheme. The branding is further extended through the website’s typography.
In order to soften the design, convey a non-threatening atmosphere, and create subtle points of visual interest we created a number of hand-drawn, doodle-like patterns. These textures are a reference to similar designs already in use on other Shield of Athena collaterals and serve to further connect the website with the rest of the organization’s brand.
Digital Strategy & Web Development
Easy to navigate legal content with built-in protection
We used collapsible accordions for longer texts to give the users a quick and efficient way to scan through the content.
While the majority of the website’s content is presented in French and English, an area with basic content has been created to offer the most pertinent information in 9 additional languages, namely Greek, Russian, Belarusian, Spanish, Arabic, Farsi, Bengali, Urdu, and Tamil. Appropriate design adjustments are in place for presenting right-to-left (RTL) language content.
One of the website’s unique features is an “easy-quit” button allowing a user to quickly leave the website, an important feature for providing information to those in a volatile or hostile environment.
Lastly, the website is completely responsive, which is to say that it’s optimized for viewing on mobile devices.
Website Companion Brochure Design
When digital isn’t the only answer
Athena’s Legal Info website is accompanied by a brochure which we designed to complement the website. Our use of speech bubbles, typography, colour, and hand-drawn patterns creates a strong connection between the two products.
Just as with the website, the pamphlet is available is a number of languages mostly targeting the Middle-Eastern and South-Asian communities, with appropriate design adjustments for right-to-left (RTL) languages.
The second brochure tied to this project is on the topic of forced marriage. We created this brochure specifically to provide women with a tool they can use if they believe that their family might be preparing to force them into marriage.
The brochure is to be a woman’s passport to freedom. Appropriate design elements and treatments were used to create a passport-like look and feel.
The brochure’s colours and typography are consistent with the Athena’s Legal Info website and pamphlet, keeping the brochure on brand.
In addition to being an expert at working with the WordPress platform, Sasha has also assisted us in the strategic planning and actual development of our projects. They are an attentive listener and have always taken into account our organization’s goals and needs as well as the needs of our audience. With their assistance, we have devised the optimal solution that’s both visually appealing, technologically savvy, and very attuned to our needs.
