The International Forum for Rural Transport and Development (IFRTD) called me in to design the identity and materials for their Waterways and Livelihoods initiative, a research programme on rural water transport and the role it plays in the lives of some of the world’s poorest people. I designed the logo, the website, a brochure and an advocacy toolkit, along with other print collateral.
The designs were built from photographs taken by the organization and delivered as pure vectors. That was a deliberate choice. Large files were hard to send over the internet at the time, and I was working between Sri Lanka and Toronto while IFRTD’s head office was in London. Vector files kept everything light, sharp and easy to move across three continents.
For the website, I developed a custom PHP-based content management system, which let IFRTD’s staff in the UK upload photos and news stories themselves, well before systems like WordPress were in common use. Everything was produced in French, English and Spanish, and I built the site so that clicking a language toggle took you straight to the same page in the new language, instead of dumping you back on the home page. It’s a small detail, but it made the site much easier to use for a multilingual, international audience.
You can view a copy of the toolkit here.
