Kia Kaha box – charity begins at home

by | Sep 5, 2019

Kia Kaha Box is a charity set up solely to bring joy to people.

Christmas is a time for love, family and happiness, though unfortunately a lot of women and children in New Zealand do not get to experience that each year due to mental and physical abuse at home.

Sublime was tasked with developing a suitable identity to be used on a box and across social media.

 

The brief

Inspired by a Samaritans initiative, and astonished by the statistics (every night, 201 women and children needed a safe space to sleep), Becky Roberts of Kia Kaha Box was keen to start an independent project unaffiliated with large organisations. 

The client approached Sublime Design with a few simple requirements for the branding project. Understated, gentle and full of hope for women and children in safehouses at Christmas, the brand had to be in pastel shades, and be primarily designed for a sticker on a shoe box.

Loosely translated as Stay Strong, Becky hopes the choice of name, Kia Kaha, and the kindness of the donators resonate with the recipients.

 

The logo: 

Typeface

A handwritten font, all in lower case, was chosen to create a friendly informal feel. Totally customised with the addition of a bow on the descender of the ‘k’ to represent a gift, and the use of a hand drawn heart as the dot of the ‘i’, the wording fits nicely into a square; a box. It is then balanced by the elegant sans serif used for ‘BOX’.

Colour

When the brief is for pastel colours, you want the colours to be soft, though not insipid. Strong yet welcoming and surprisingly fresh, the colour palette is muted and the use of reversing elements out of the box adds visual interest.

Shape

With ‘Box’ in the tile, we chose to use a square.

Usage

The brand is to be used primarily on a box and social media. Examples are shown in the orginal colour. note: the brand colour changed to green in 2020.

Facebook header:

Animated Facebook headers:

 

How can you help?

Every night, 201 women and children needed a safe space to sleep, as one in three women in New Zealand will experience domestic violence and abuse, causing many to flee their homes for the safety of themselves and their children. Kia Kaha Box gift boxes are distributed around safe houses in Auckland at Christmas time, bringing back a little joy along with some love and happiness.

Here’s how you can get involved:

Fill a box!

  • Kia Kaha Box will provide you with a labelled box to fill.
  • The boxes will be dropped off to you and then collected once you have filled it.
  • You will be provided with a list of things which can and can’t be added to the boxes.
  • There is a small payment of $5 to cover the cost of the boxes, promotional material, processing fees etc.
  • State preferred category.

 

The categories for boxes are:

  • Women
  • Boy/Girl 1-5 years
  • Boy/Girl 6-12 years
  • Boy/Girl teenager

If you would like to get involved, then please email kiakahabox@gmail.com for more information.

And if putting together a box of gifts isn’t for you, though you would still like to help in some way, then please make a donation via the Give A Little page. After consulting with the amazing people at Women’s Refuge, it seems a big thing they lack is the food to provide a Christmas meal. Any additional monies raised will help to support this, along with Christmas games, films, hats – pretty much anything to bring as much normality to their day as possible. Can you help?

Give A Little Page

Facebook Page