ARCC
PROJECT INFO
ARCC (Aotearoa Resettled Community Coalition) is an Auckland-based non-profit that supports resettled and migrant communities as they build new lives in Aotearoa. The challenge was building a consistent, accessible design system that could work across very different audiences — new residents, volunteers, and internal staff — spanning both print and digital.
MY ROLE
I was the in-house designer for ARCC over roughly 1.5 years, working closely with the team across branding, print, marketing, and digital. I owned design across New Resident magazines, employee and volunteer handbooks, brochures, flyers, annual reports, social media content, and the website redesign.
KEY DESIGN DECISIONS
Decision 1: Building the identity around family, warmth, and connection
ARCC's mission centres on support and belonging, so I grounded the visual system in the existing logo — two figures representing an adult and a young person, symbolising guidance and care — and carried that same warmth through every touchpoint, from magazines to the website.
Decision 2: Using colour with intent, not just decoration
I built the palette around yellow, representing hope and a brighter future for resettled communities, and green, representing connection to Aotearoa and belonging in a new environment. Colour became a functional tool for navigation and meaning across materials, not just a visual layer.
Decision 3: Designing for clarity across multilingual, newly-arrived audiences
Much of ARCC's print material: handbooks, guides, brochures — needed to be understood quickly by people who may not read English as a first language. I simplified layouts, strengthened visual hierarchy, and leaned on photog
OUTCOME
The final work created a cohesive and accessible brand system across ARCC’s print, marketing, and digital touchpoints.
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A unified visual identity across magazines, brochures, reports, and internal documents
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A warm, human-centred brand identity rooted in family and unity
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A refreshed website design aligned with the updated branding
This resulted in a 16.7% increase in user engagement, along with improved accessibility across digital touch-points that makes the information easier to find, understand, and actually use (which is kind of the whole point, really).
Working with ARCC reinforced how important clarity and empathy are in design, especially when designing for communities with very different backgrounds and needs.
