How we look

The Sightsavers logo

Our logo is made up of two elements: the Sightsavers name and the interlocking rings. The rings represent partnership – the way in which we work – and they combine to form an eye symbol. The logo aims to project confidence and authority. The colours create a striking contrast that is as accessible as possible to people with visual impairments.

There are two versions of the logo: horizontal and vertical. Use the version that complements the composition of the design.

All versions of the Sightsavers logo can be downloaded from iVillage, from the ‘Brand assets and templates’ folder. External suppliers: ask your Sightsavers contact to provide any items you need.

Italian logo

When designing content for the Italian market, the Sightsavers Italy logo must be used. It includes the strapline ‘Italia ONLUS’, an acronym for ‘Organizzazione non lucrativa di utilitá sociale’ (Italian social organisation).

This logo should be used in the same way as the master logo, and must follow the same rules for clear zones and positioning.

Logo colour variations

There are several colour variations of the logo, which can be used on coloured backgrounds where the primary logo isn’t as legible because of contrast levels.

Contrast with the background is the only factor that should determine which version of the logo to use. Different versions should not be used to represent or imply a sub-brand.

If the logo is positioned on an image, make sure the background does not affect the legibility of the logo. If necessary, place the logo in a coloured footer. See the ‘Brand in action’ section for examples.

Logo clear zone

A clear zone must be maintained around the logo to ensure maximum impact and make sure it is easy to read. The clear space (X) is defined by the height of the capital ‘S’ in the Sightsavers logo. Please do not position anything within the zone indicated in grey. See below for guidelines about positioning the logo on the page.

Minimum height

The vertical logo should never appear smaller than 15mm in height. The horizontal logo should never appear smaller than 7mm in height.

Logo positioning

For printed publications such as brochure front covers, policy documents and advertising, the logo should be positioned in the bottom right corner.

For letterheads, compliments slips and large-format communications such as pull-up banners, the logo should be positioned in the top left corner.

For digital products, the position of the logo will vary depending on the platform and the constraints of the format.

See the ‘Brand in action’ section for examples.

Brand typeface

Lato is our brand typeface: various weights can be used in Sightsavers publications depending on the design.

• Lato Regular is used for body copy.
• Lato Bold is used for headings.
• Lato Light can be used for occasional body copy.
• Lato Black can be used for headings if Lato Bold does not give enough emphasis.

Do not use italic styles: they are much harder to read and therefore less accessible. Other weights can be used as required.

What are typefaces and fonts?
A typeface (also known as font family) is a set of one or more fonts each composed of characters that share common design features. Each font of a typeface has a specific weight and style. For example, Lato regular and Lato bold are two different fonts within the same typeface.

Alternative typeface

Sightsavers’ Microsoft Office templates use Arial as an alternative typeface. Arial is pre-loaded on most computer operating systems: this ensures all documents display correctly when shared internally or externally.

• Arial Regular is used for body copy
• Arial Bold is used for headings, web addresses and email addresses.

We encourage Sightsavers staff to use Arial 12pt or 14pt as the main text for their emails, to ensure it can be read easily.

Typography

Alignment
Always align text to the left: this makes it easier to see where the next line starts. Never justify text, as this creates uneven gaps between words.

Body copy
Body copy should be Lato Regular at 12 pt, with a minimum of 14.6 pt leading (the space between lines of text). Don’t reduce or increase the tracking (the space between letters) excessively: this can make text harder to read, particularly for people with visual impairments or dyslexia.

Bullets and numbering
Use standard circular bullet points or dashes. Don’t use unusual glyphs or ornaments. If you’re describing stages that happen in a particular order, use numbers instead of bullet points.

Colour choices
Be aware of contrast when choosing a colour scheme, to ensure your test is visible to readers with low vision. Black should be used as the main font colour. Don’t use yellow text on a white background or white text on a yellow background.

Email addresses and URLs
Print: Use Lato Bold for contact details, email addresses and web addresses. Don’t use italics or underlines in print.
Digital: Links, emails and web addresses should be bold and underlined. Don’t use italics on digital platforms.

Headings and titles
Use sentence case for headings and titles. Don’t capitalise each word or use all caps: capitalisation is harder to read, and can be particularly problematic for people with dyslexia and visual impairments.

Hierarchy
Create a hierarchy of information using font weights, sizes and column structures.

Italics and underlines
Don’t use italics, except for titles in references, and don’t underline words. Both of these are harder to read. The only exception is links on the website, which should be underlined.

Ligatures
All ligatures must be turned off to ensure the text is easy to read. For guidance on how to do this, contact the online and design team: [email protected].

Spacing
Do use single spacing in your documents. Don’t use double spacing: screenreaders will read out the second space as ‘space’, which can be annoying for users. Avoid using multiple paragraph returns, or users will hear the word ‘return’ throughout the document. If you need to create additional spaces between lines or paragraphs, use ‘space after’ and ‘space before’ in Paragraph Settings.

Symbols
Don’t use symbols when they can be written out in full. Use ‘per cent’ instead of %, ‘and’ instead of ‘&’, and ‘number’ instead of ‘#’. The exception is currencies (£, $, €), which always use a symbol.

Text positioning
When placing text over a picture, ensure the background offers sufficient contrast to make the text legible. If the text is hard to read, either add a discreet drop shadow, or use subtle overlays behind the text to increase contrast levels.

Icons

Use icons from the brand toolkit to highlight content: examples are shown here. They can be used with callout boxes or on their own.

Each of the icons has a label that corresponds to its file name in iVillage. However, they are designed to be fairly ambiguous to ensure they are flexible and can be applied to a variety of subjects and areas. External suppliers: ask your Sightsavers contact to provide any items you need.

Icon colours
The icon style is a mixture of line and filled shapes. Icons use two colours: a white or black keyline, and a highlight colour from the Sightsavers brand palette. Always consider colour contrast with the background when choosing which colour to use.

For more information about using Sightsavers icons, see the ‘Brand icons’ document, available on iVillage.

Photography is critical to our brand. It should tell our story in context and be appropriate to the audience.

Ethics

We aim to feature the people we work with as central storytellers, and we have a duty of care to protect the people we portray so they are represented accurately.

• Photos must be respectful, and should not stigmatise anyone.
• Everyone in photos (including children) must be fully clothed, wearing clothing appropriate to the local custom.
• Content must relate to the situation being described (eg a photo of someone with cataracts cannot be used to illustrate a story about trachoma).
• Never use stock images or photos sourced from the web to illustrate our work.
• Don’t use photos that are more than five years old. If possible, use the most recent photos available to ensure longevity.

Capturing images

• All photographers must sign Sightsavers’ code of conduct before visiting our project work.
• Always ask people before taking their photo, wherever possible.
• Never take a photograph of a child without the full understanding and permission of the parent or guardian. All subjects must give their informed consent, and they or their parent or guardian must sign a permission form.
• Images must only be taken of people’s typical activities and actual challenges.
• Encourage your subject to get involved, especially with children: ask them for ideas on how they would like to be shown.
• Be culturally sensitive in what you ask people to do – what’s acceptable in one place might not be in others. If in doubt, ask local programme staff to advise.
• Consider how framing and angles can affect how someone is depicted: try not to take images from above as this can seem disempowering.
• Limit cropping or framing that makes people look more vulnerable than they are. Try to include context, showing someone’s home or the environment.
• Children must not appear isolated if they are being cared for by family members.
• Don’t manipulate a situation to make it look worse than it is. For example, if a child is being held by their mother, this is the image you should take: don’t ask her to put the child down.

Image editing and manipulation

• Do ensure all images are as authentic as possible and accurately reflect the situation being portrayed.
• Do crop images sensitively if needed. Ensure the crop doesn’t alter the photo’s context, or make people look more vulnerable than they are.
• Do make sure any photo enhancements are minimal and natural (ie to brighten an image if needed).
• Do use colour photos: this is the most realistic representation of a situation, and is more natural.
• Don’t significantly alter any images from their original form, including over-saturation and over-processing.
• Don’t edit or airbrush any image to alter a person’s appearance or change the mood or concept of a photo.
• Don’t use black and white or sepia images, unless they are historical photos.
• Don’t create composite or collage images, unless for specific publicity reasons, where it should be obvious that the image has been set up.
• Don’t mirror images unless absolutely necessary. If you need to flip an image, ensure there are no visible elements to show the image had been flipped (such as text, logos or other noticeable features).

Photo credits

Images should be credited to Sightsavers and the photographer, in this format:
© Sightsavers/Photographer name

In printed documents, the credits should be at least 10pt. If formatted vertically, the wording should run top to bottom. Online, the credit should be included either in the image caption or, if a page features multiple images by the same photographer, at the end of the main text on the page.

Overlays

Colour overlays can be used on images to create backgrounds within layouts.

Use one of the main or secondary colours from the Sightsavers brand palette, and be aware of colour contrast and legibility when positioning text on top.

The example here uses a greyscale image at 18% opacity, with an overlay of Sightsavers Blueberry at 60% opacity set to ‘multiply’.

Sightsavers produces videos for a wide range of audiences and purposes, including for our websites and social media.

Different channels require different approaches, but the following guidelines should form the basis of all our video content.

Templates are available for all the graphic devices used in Sightsavers-branded videos, including idents, end slides and lower thirds. They are set up to be used in Adobe Premiere.

Resolution

Screens vary widely in size. Take extra care when creating videos so they display correctly on a variety of screen sizes. For standard videos, use a screen resolution of 1920 x 1080 px (1080p), which implies a widescreen aspect ratio of 16:9.

Video ident

The Sightsavers ident, featuring an animated logo alongside simple audio, should be included at the start of all Sightsavers videos to identify them and ensure they are consistent. It can be downloaded from iVillage.

Video end slides

Use the templates available on iVillage to create specific end slides for video content. There are several options to choose from, depending on the content of the video. Options include an end slide with text, one with a URL and social media links, and one with space to add details about a specific campaign.

The example here includes the Sightsavers URL and can be used for general videos.

Title templates

Use a title template to introduce content or scenes when needed. Text should be in Lato font, minimum 12pt. Avoid including too many words on each title slide, otherwise it will be hard for viewers to read it.

The templates can be downloaded from iVillage.

Lower third

The lower third should be used to introduce a speaker’s name and job title. If captions need to be displayed at the same time as a lower third, position the captions above the lower third as shown in the example.

Name and job title text

This can be used as an alternative to the lower third. Use Lato bold in Sightsavers Yellow for the name, and Lato regular in white for the title, in at least 28px.

Position the caption in a logical place on the screen to avoid obscuring the video, and use a cross-dissolve to fade in and out. Make sure the contrast is sufficient so the text is clear and easy to read.

Location lower third

Use this to introduce the country or continent in which the video is set. It is positioned at the bottom of the screen and should fade in and out.

Video typography

Use Lato font for all typography. Select an appropriate style when designing to 1080p:

• Title 1: Lato Regular or Bold 130px, auto leading
• Title 2: Lato Regular or Bold 90px, auto leading
• Title 3: Lato Regular or Bold 72px, auto leading
• Title 4: Lato Regular or Bold 57px, auto leading
• Body: Lato Regular 48px, auto leading
• Subtitles: Lato Regular 28px, auto leading

Positioning
Ensure text is left aligned – this will ensure it is accessible and easily legible. Align title text vertically in the centre of the screen.

Text safe zones
Keep text, captions and subtitles away from the edges of the screen. Content that’s close to the edges may not display fully.