Civic Circles

The BAM (Books, Art, and Music) Collective and I met through the Centre for Social Innovation. They wanted to redefine the organization’s strategies, develop a new name, and evolve it's brand to better reflect their programming for local youth.

Through-and-through, this project has been an immensely collaborative process with the Civic Circles team of Hanen Nanaa, Jenna Robar, Ousama Al Khatub, Kataryna Patsak, and Daniel Cowen. We also involved their community during the naming process through a survey to gather feedback and narrow down options. I organized and facilitated many workshops and meetings, both in person and digitally, to define their brand strategy and refreshed visual identity into what is now known as Civic Circles.

Strategy — Naming — Identity

Client — Civic Circles
Date — Oct 2025

A group of youth and young adults sitting on green grass in a park with the Civic Circles logotype above them.

A collage of images from the Civic Circles workshops and collaborative sessions. Some of the images include people being crafty, Figma file notes, mood boards, and a group photo on a couch.

Vision - A world where equity deserving groups are able to access an inclusive resource ecosystem across Canada.

Mission - Civic Circles meaningfully engage and support communities through art to foster advocacy and create accessible pathways for social change.

Values: Community Collaboration, Creativity & Innovation, Equity & Justice, Safer Spaces

Promise - A place where groups can connect, thrive and inspire.

Proposition - Civic Circles stand out by using creative expression as a source of community building and systems/social change.

Experience - At Civic Circles, members are able to be themselves, honour each other’s lived experiences, be excited for the future, and take action to lead. Through face-to-face and online interactions, everyone’s experience needs to be accessible, diverse, inclusive, and provide a sense of belonging.

A simple infographic showing how Civic Circle programs include events, consulting service, advocacy work, and projects, and how they are connected to one another.

A comprehensive breakdown of the three primary audiences for Civic Circles, outlining the demographics for each, such as ages, gender, location, household, income, challenges, and goals.

“Austin has been an incredible partner to Civic Circles over the past year. His guidance, creativity, and innovative approach supported our full rebranding journey. Through collaborative co-design sessions, surveys, and community engagement, Austin helped us select our new name and articulate a clear, refined mission and vision. He led creative conversations that helped us identify key messaging for our clients, community partners and funders, and supported us in refining our tone of voice, digital strategy, and audience-focused communications.

Austin also designed a comprehensive brand identity for Civic Circles, including our logo, visual identity, branding guide, and five KPIs to evaluate our ongoing digital efforts and impact. His interactive hybrid sessions were engaging, thoughtful, and grounded in our values. He listens with care and curiosity, and brings passion to every stage of the process. We are grateful for Austin's expertise, commitment, and the care he has shown in supporting our growth, and we highly recommend working with him.”

Hanen Nanaa - Civic Circles

A mockup of a branded poster on a bus stop that says "Co-create for change."

A business card design mockup.

Positioning: For our members, we are the community, arts, and civic engagement hub that delivers opportunities to co-create change through self-expressions, living experience, culture, connection, and collective action for systems change, so they can gain the tools, confidence, creativity, and community support to be themselves, engage in decision-making, and lead change because they will develop a sense of shared responsibilityand be able to promote engaged citizenship to many equity-deserving communities that are excluded from shaping the systems that impact them.

Personality: Community Focused,
Collaborative, Worldly, and Committed to Change

Tone of Voice: Welcoming, warm, encouraging, hopeful, cross-cultural, rooted, informative, credbiel, progressive, curious.

A tote design mockup where a young lady in a white shirt is holding a bag.

A branded cold, steel blue water bottle design mockup.

A design mockup showing an A-frame sign in front of a city store on a sidewalk that says, "You belong here. Build, grow, learn."

A design mockup showing a pole banner against a blue sky that says "Lead with integrity, passion and action."

A mockup for a horizontal banner attached above a stone building entrance that says "Building equitable systems through civic engagement."

A vinyl window print design mockup that says "A collaborative space for you."

A t-shirt mockup showcasing one of their community members art work.

A mockup showing a lady holding a branded orange notebook that says "Bring your story."

A metal pin mockup showing a branded yellow and a purple design.

Three social media design mockups.