Catapult needs a new logo

Catapult

New Energy, Big Impact

Catapult accelerates progress on the world’s most pressing environmental and social challenges through high-impact advocacy and political campaigning.

We are a mission-driven campaign consulting firm, and we work with the world’s leading philanthropic foundations, non-profit organizations, and a handful of pro-environment governments to deliver wins on critically important issues. The majority of our current work focuses on protecting tropical rainforests, but we are also helping run campaigns to make biofuels policy more sustainable, reduce climate pollution from airlines, and advance stronger overall climate policy around the world. We are interested in expanding our environmental work to other issues, including wildlife and land conservation, ocean and fish conservation, and clean air issues, and are also open to working on other social issues. Much of our work is international in nature, and is likely to remain so – so it’s critical that our logo engage an international audience.

Members of our staff have significant experience in working on U.S. election campaigns, and a significant focus of our work will be growing a new practice in this area - though the bulk of our work is likely to remain environment for some time as we build this practice.

Our Approach

Catapult’s savvy strategists, communications pros, and accomplished political organizers bring energy and creativity to the world’s most pressing environmental and social challenges. From design through execution, we move fast, take bold and decisive action, and help build powerful movements that secure enduring change.

While we are a rigorous, nimble, results-oriented for-profit consultancy, we bring passion and a mission more commonly associated with non-profits (indeed, we are frequently thought of as a non-profit by people who just see our work).

Some of the attributes we associate with Catapult are:

• Energy – We bring catalytic energy to the campaigns we work on, dramatically intensifying their level of activity – and inspiring our partners to up their own game as well.
• Action – We’re not just interested in crafting beautiful ideas, but in launching meaningful political action. We send organizers into the thick of major political fights, develop powerful communications efforts, and go to wherever the decisions are being made. We don’t mind taking on the most powerful, wealthiest opponents and confronting them to their face.
• Speed – We move fast, we hit hard, and we win.
• Creative – Our clients come to us in large measure because we come up with highly inventive ideas and we know how to implement them. Our campaigns are unique.
• High-impact – We’re extremely goal oriented, and want to win on the biggest scale possible. At the end of the day, we measure ourselves by how much of a difference for good we’re making.
• Mission-driven – We do this work because we care profoundly about the type of world we’re creating. We wake up every day thinking about how we’re going to ensure a living planet and a better world.

Core Values
• Energy & action
• Sustainability
• Impact

Design Specifications
Our logo needs to inspire respect, trust, admiration, and a desire to work with a wide range of people, including especially:
• CEO’s of Fortune 500 companies
• Grassroots activists
• Elite policy-makers
• Foundations, government grant-makers, and non-profit organizations
• Election campaign professionals
In short, the logo should embody our mission and our qualities just as well in the corridors of power as in the gritty church basements where movements are born.
Core Design Attributes
• Professional, modern, bold
• Evocative of mission and approach
• Should evoke the momentum and progress associated with the name catapult, but should not include war-like imagery. This is about catapulting forward (the verb), not a bulky, medieval weapon of war (the noun).

Specific Guidance
• We’re interested in having a visual logo, though would also likely need inclusion of our name. The logo should capture the impact we hope to make – and its style and professionalism should reflect our ability to deliver the highest quality results.
• We’re flexible on colors, though have some preference for bolder ones that capture our passion, intensity, and pioneering nature.
• Design should have superb spatial proportioning.
• The organization’s symbol should be able to stand on its own without the words Catapult.
• The logo should be highly memorable – some abstraction might be okay, but the important thing is that the image stand out and be instantly memorable and recognizable.