A little background: Sad Girls Club is a non-profit which blossomed from founder Elyse Fox’s short film, documenting the worst year of her depression. She used the film to communicate with friends and family about her mental state and to be vulnerable for the first time publicly. Having released the film, she experienced a wave of support from young BIPOC women who saw themselves in her story wanting to be more open about their mental health. Soon after, the SGC online community began through Instagram. The community grew incredibly quickly to over 250k members which enabled SGC to host in-person support events too. Now they have an ambitious goal – “To reduce the global suicide rate while combatting stigma and stereotypes specifically amongst womxn of colour and womxn of immigrant communities.”

The brief: Prior to our involvement, Sad Girls Club was without a fully formed brand identity. We were asked to look at the brand purpose, DNA, values, brand statement, the logo and brand toolkit, with the aim of building recognition and credibility thereby future proofing the brand by attracting fundraising and brand partnerships.

Our considerations: The goal was to create a safe space for open conversations through graphical language and tone of voice. Being real and down to earth was absolutely critical. It needed to reflect women who aren’t afraid to be authentically themselves.

The creative: The happy/sad dichotomy is represented in our design work. Within our logo there’s a smile at the bottom and the downturned graphic at the top. The purpose of Sad Girls Club is to diminish the stigma surrounding mental health, so it was important to include this reference in our logo design – a reminder that it’s OK to feel this way and to share those feelings. As the space is predominately for Gen Z and Millennial BIPOC women, we wanted to keep the vibe inviting and fun. Founder Elyse loved the seventies aesthetic, so we took inspiration from that with a bright colour palette. The brand line we introduced, small talk real talk, instantly shows this community digs deeper than the surface, exploring issues which are both personal and critical for wellbeing. We decided to put a line through small talk to emphasise this visually and to help people feel comfortable about sharing their real feelings, without the need for small talk. We also created a suite of character illustrations, to help give an identity to emotional states like anxiety and frustration and to de-stigmatise them. The characters are quirky, irreverent, bringing the whole look and feel together.

The impact: Since the branding launched in early 2020, the rebrand enabled fundraising channels – quadrupling their previous donations – attracting sponsors and partners such as NikeWomen, Gucci, HBO, Victoria’s Secret, Lululemon, Victoria’s Secret and Soho House. Just as important, there was overwhelming positive comments and shares from community members. Our brand line, Small Talk Real Talk, has even inspired the name of the Sad Girls Club podcast which launches late spring.

The branding has also contributed to 70 million media impressions to date. Recording artist Drake featured the Sad Girls Club logo we created in his video, What’s Next, using his platform to raise awareness of such an important cause.

The funds raised since the rebrand have allowed Sad Girls Club to reinvest and build a new website (with our help), pay therapists and offer 250 hours of free therapy to 2500+ community members.

We’re honoured that the new branding has taken them that much closer to their goal of reducing the global suicide rate – hear from the founder, Elyse Fox, how the rebrand has transformed Sad Girls Club. “The investment paid off almost immediately. Once we were able to package our aesthetic, brands began to take us more seriously and the donation totals quadrupled in the first year (it was also year 1 of Covid!).”

Website revamp: In February 2022, we also successfully created a website that spoke to two key audiences effortlessly.
Anyone seeking mental health resources can find them with ease, while sponsors and donors have an entirely tailored user journey.
From initial site mapping to a fully functioning website that can support the Sad Girls Club mission, we worked collaboratively with our client every step of the way.