Sesame Workshop partnered with LOJA to create a brand identity for Welcome Sesame, a global humanitarian program focusing on providing comfort and learning to children and caregivers affected by crisis and conflict. This initiative reaches children across five continents, from East Africa to Latin America and beyond, offering a sense of "welcome", through fundraising and resources.
The brand needed to be translatable and adaptable across many languages, including those with non-Latin alphabets, and be easily produced as new crises arose. We sourced typefaces that worked across different alphabets, and manually designed type glyphs as needed, ensuring consistency on sizes and curves. The brand mark is seen translated into over 20 languages, including Hola Sésamo (Spanish), Ласкаво просимо до Сезаму (Ukrainian), Farsi/Dari, Amharic, Yoruba, Hausa, and Somali.
Children desire familiarity in new places, which led us to universal symbols like the sun, with its radiating warmth and a literal guiding light anywhere in the world. Its semi-circular form connects to existing Sesame Workshop brand elements, and can be broken up and used as fun brand elements.
by Sesame Street
by Sesame Street
"Welcome Sesame" applications & branding / designs by Sesame Workshop brand design team
Sesame Workshop's in-house designers created a toolkit with brand guidelines, inspired by the title treatment's shapes and colors. The sun's rays became holding shapes for photography, and IP characters were able to interact with the brand.
The branding was used in educational and promotional materials like helpful guides, educational materials, activity sheets for kids, and branded materials for fundraising and awareness.
by Sesame Workshop
by Studio LOJA
by Sesame Workshop
by Sesame Workshop
by Sesame Workshop
by Sesame Workshop
by Sesame Workshop
The design approach for Welcome Sesame aimed for a brand that felt real, heartfelt, and hopeful, not "crisis-ey." The tone needed to be trusting, playful, warm, and welcoming, with the signature Sesame "wink." The art direction drew inspiration from children and communities Welcome Sesame serves, including art made by kids in refugee camps.
by Sesame Workshop
by Sesame Workshop
by Sesame Workshop
LOJA
Graphic designer: Bárbara Astrini
SESAME WORKSHOP
Art director: Molly Hein
Project managers: Leora Zuckerman, Diego Morales
Graphic designer: Bárbara Astrini
SESAME WORKSHOP
Art director: Molly Hein
Project managers: Leora Zuckerman, Diego Morales
