The Client
CONCORD is the European network of NGOs for sustainable development and international cooperation and the main interlocutor with the EU institutions on sustainable development policy and international cooperation. With 58 member organisations representing more than 2,600 NGOs, it needed an identity that reflected both the scale of its network and its role in the European policy space.
The Assignment
A visual identity refresh, developed alongside the redesign of the CONCORD website.
Scope: brand strategy and stakeholder research, wordmark, colour and typography system, pattern, imagery principles, brand guidelines and document templates.
Timeline: discovery in March 2026, board consultation on 22 April, launch at the General Assembly on 16 June 2026.
Status: in use. The 2027 strategy, Rising to the Occasion Together, published in June 2026, is the first major publication created in the new identity.
Roles: Penrose led strategy, art direction, design and motion. CONCORD contributed through discovery, interviews and decision-making, with director sign-off, board consultation, and the communications team as project owners.
The challenge
CONCORD describes itself as“the main interlocutor with the EU institutions on sustainable development policy and international cooperation”.Its visual identity, however, no longer fully reflected that role.
The previous logo had been in use since 2003. Its colourful lettering and illustration-led style expressed the openness and diversity of CONCORD's membership, but less so its position as an established and credible voice in conversations with EU institutions, Member States and potential funding partners.
This was also the communications team's assessment during discovery: the organisation had evolved, while the identity had remained largely unchanged. The issue was not simply that the logo was more than 20 years old. It was that it no longer represented CONCORD as it is today.
In 2026, there was also a clear opportunity to make the change. A new strategy was due to be adopted at the General Assembly on 16 June, with an ambition for CONCORD to become“bolder and reliable experts and conveners”.At the same time, Penrose was already redesigning the CONCORD website. Refreshing the identity alongside these two projects meant the organisation could introduce a consistent visual language across its main communications.
Objective and brief
The objective was broader than creating a new logo. CONCORD needed an identity that would help external audiences recognise it as an expert, impartial and credible organisation speaking on behalf of a large and diverse network.
At the same time, the identity needed to feel relevant to its 58 member organisations. It had to represent a collective without losing the sense of openness and collaboration that members already associated with CONCORD.
The resulting brief covered a new wordmark, colour and typography system, a visual pattern, imagery principles, brand guidelines and practical templates that the secretariat could use independently.
What the research changed
We began with a detailed discovery process with the communications team, followed by interviews with CONCORD's director, treasurer and a board member from one of its global networks. The findings were brought together in a synthesis at the end of March 2026, separating the areas where there was already agreement from the questions that still needed to be resolved.
Two findings shaped the direction of the work.
First, there were different opinions about individual elements such as colour, photography and the strapline, but much more agreement about the audiences the identity needed to reach. One useful question emerged from the interviews:how would a Commission official or a foundation officer read this identity?
That perspective helped us evaluate the options from the point of view of the people CONCORD needs to influence and work with, rather than looking only at what felt familiar within the NGO sector.
Second, the identity needed to balance two sides of CONCORD's role. It needed to feel credible and confident enough for a policy organisation, while also reflecting its role as a convener and facilitator for a large membership.
This led us towards a wordmark-led identity with no separate symbol and no reliance on photography. The aim was to create a system that felt established and institutional, without becoming distant or overly formal.
The constraints
The project also came with a clear set of practical and strategic constraints.
Certain colours needed to be avoided because of their political associations in Brussels. Red and blue were therefore not considered as primary brand colours. Pastels were also excluded.
Photography of people raised ethical, copyright and practical questions, particularly for an organisation representing 58 members across different countries and contexts. The team also wanted to avoid familiar charity imagery and visual clichés such as globes, hands, doves, leaves and religious symbols.
Other colours were considered carefully for their existing associations. Purple was checked against its use by feminist movements and Volt, while green risked positioning CONCORD too strongly as a climate organisation.
Accessibility was a requirement throughout the system. The selected typefaces also needed to be free to install, easy to use and legible at small sizes on screen.
At the same time, there were elements worth retaining. Members already strongly associated CONCORD with its hot pink, and the existing strapline,“Collective Power. European Action. Global Equality.”, remained relevant to the organisation.
The response
The new identity centres on the CONCORD name itself.
We drew the wordmark as one continuous line, with each letter connecting to the next. The individual letters remain distinct, but together they form one uninterrupted shape. This became a simple visual expression of CONCORD as a confederation:
The wordmark also helped us balance the two qualities identified during research. Its weight gives it presence and confidence, while the rounded loops and connections make it feel more open and approachable.
There was no need to introduce an additional symbol. The idea of connection and plurality is already present in the name and in the way the letters are drawn. Keeping the identity focused on the wordmark also means it can sit comfortably alongside the identities of CONCORD's members without competing with them.
Three ideas sit behind the wordmark: solidarity, expressed through the way the letters connect without hierarchy; continuity, represented by the uninterrupted line; and plurality, with seven distinct characters forming one word.
The visual pattern develops the same idea further. Built from interlocking geometric forms derived from the wordmark, it provides a strong visual element for report covers, digital communications, events and key visuals.
A second, quieter application uses an enlarged section of the wordmark, positioned at the edge of the page. This gives simpler materials such as letterheads, business cards and member-facing templates a recognisable CONCORD element without overwhelming the content.
The colour system was simplified significantly. The hot pink already familiar to members became the main brand colour, used for the wordmark, headlines and key statements. Orange provides an accent and is used sparingly. Cream creates a softer background for most layouts.
A very dark navy is used for body text and captions. At this level and in this context, it functions visually as an alternative to black rather than as a primary blue brand colour.
Typography follows the same principles of clarity and accessibility. Archivo Black and Extra Bold are used for display text, with Inter Tight for body copy. A 1:1.5 type scale provides a simple and consistent hierarchy across applications. Both typefaces are open source, so the secretariat and member organisations can use them without additional licensing.
The imagery principles were also defined as part of the identity. Visual choices should feel institutional rather than charitable, favour abstraction over literal representation, show dignity and agency, and remain clean and bold.
One simple test was included in the guidelines:
“If it could sit in a fundraising leaflet, it is not for us.”
Several other directions were explored during the process. A lighter refresh was considered, but the research showed that leadership wanted the change to be clearly visible. A separate symbol was explored but ultimately felt unnecessary alongside the wordmark and could have competed with members' identities.
Photography was also considered as a way to show people and shifting power more directly. In practice, questions around consent, GDPR, consistency across 58 organisations and the concerns raised by the communications team made it difficult to build a sustainable identity around photography.
Three routes went to the board on 22 April; the board chose the bold evolution.
Implementation
The final guidelines run to 30 pages and cover wordmark variants, approved colour combinations, typography hierarchy and scale, both versions of the pattern, imagery principles and practical applications including document hierarchy, business cards, email signatures, report covers and key visuals.
Internal and external document templates were also created so the secretariat can produce consistent materials without relying on Penrose for day-to-day design work. The use of open-source typefaces makes the system equally easy for member organisations to adopt.
The decision-making process was structured to work within a confederation. With 58 member organisations, consultation is an important part of how CONCORD works, but the project also needed clear points at which decisions could be made.
The process therefore focused consultation around a limited number of stages, with the reasoning behind each direction clearly documented. This included director sign-off, board consultation on 22 April, input from a small group of communications representatives from the membership, and the presentation of the finished identity at the General Assembly on 16 June.
What happened
The new identity launched at CONCORD's General Assembly on 16 June 2026.
Its first major publication was the 2027 Strategy, Rising to the Occasion Together, published in June 2026. The 25-page strategy uses the new wordmark, pattern, colour palette and typography system throughout.
Website launched September 14.
CONCORD introduced the identity to its LinkedIn audience in its own words:
“As we keep evolving towards being ever bolder and reliable experts and conveners, we thought our visual identity should reflect that too. After two days at the General Assembly, we feel our new logo represents our Confederation more than ever: one continuous line, with each letter looping into the next.”
The longer-term measure of success will be how CONCORD is perceived by the institutional partners, policymakers and prospective funders it works with. That is something that will become clearer as the new identity is used consistently across the organisation's communications over the coming months.
Credits
Penrose:Sorin Pavel, Brand Strategy; Andrei Cotruț, Art Direction; Andreea Puiu, Graphic Design; Victor Jantea, Motion Graphics.
CONCORD: Camilla Falsetti,Tanya Cox,Michela Mansoldo
