Visual identity for COMTRAE/SP, São Paulo's anti-slavery commission

Created in 2013, the São Paulo Municipal Commission for the Eradication of Slave Labor was the first of its kind in Brazil. It brings together city departments and civil society organizations, but had no brand of its own. The commission wanted an identity that would represent the eradication movement and could be adopted by other commissions. And it wanted to escape the usual imagery: chains, bound hands, bars, images of colonial slavery that reduce the problem to a lack of freedom and cast workers in the passive role of victims.

The process began with listening. We interviewed commission members in São Paulo and by video call and ran sessions at meetings of the São Paulo commission and the National Commission, in August 2019, in which participants wrote on sticky notes the voice, values and feelings the commission evokes. We also heard key references on the subject, such as the Pastoral Land Commission, Repórter Brasil and the Labor Prosecutor's Office.

The answers pointed to coordination, network, dignity and hope. The logo translates these ideas into lines that meet at the center of a hexagon, a shape that fits together with others and suggests a network. The colors avoid blue, associated with anti-human trafficking campaigns, and red, which evokes blood.

We presented the system in visual directions and three logo options, arriving at the final version and the guidelines, with usage rules, versions, colors, icons and ready-made templates for the commission to apply to its materials. The brand already signs pieces from the network, such as the ¡Soy Inmigrante, Tengo Derechos! booklet, made by Forest for the ILO.