Fair Trade Federation Rebrand & New Logo 2024

New Logo 2024

Dunitz & Company has been around for quite a while and we're long time members of Fair Trade Federation. FTF just rebranded (again) with a new contemporary look and logo. As a long time member, I've now seen 3 logos and Dunitz still has collateral materials with the original. What to do? The easiest update is changing the logo on our websites and email blasts. Done!

While running a business, you need lots of printed materials for this or that. When you run out, you print more. What happens? You print a run of a 1000 sales order forms (for wholesale trade shows) and it takes a long time to go through them. For many years, Dunitz & Company exhibited at 16 wholesale shows per year. Pre-Covid, we were down to 3. Now we're no long doing shows, for the most part. When we attend the occasional Fair Trade Federation conference or Museum Store Association Forward trade show, we use very few forms. Looks like we're all set until retirement with these sales order forms.

I actually liked the original FTF logo showing two hands intertwined. We added it to all of our collateral materials including postcards, trade show hand-outs and an informational display card featuring artisan photos. At the time, FTF encouraged us to create informational materials that also included the organization's logo. This made a lot of sense because we discovered many buyers were not familiar with Fair Trade Federation and the principles members live by. On the back of this card we included more information about FTF. We still have a bunch if you'd like some :).

 

In 2016, Fair Trade Federation rebranded for the second time. I even wrote a blog post about it. Read it here.  The explanation for this logo and rebrand? This logo reflects the essence of 360° fair trade. The circular mark created by four interdependent hands communicates the holistic cooperation, across cultures and geographies, that defines FTF membership.

 

 

 

 

What's left in our stock room with this logo? Lots and lots of business cards. Some with my name. Some with no person's name. Some exclusively for wholesale. Some list our retail website. And lots of "story cards" we provide to retailers who want to pass them on to their customers. We probably will run out of story cards this year. And when we print more, we'll update the logo to the one introduced earlier this year.

Once again, Fair Trade Federation has rebranded and introduced a new logo this Spring. The previous logos we posted to our website and collateral materials indicated that we were "members" of the group. The newest logo exchanges the word member for "verified." I was told this was done because the FTF board and staff believe the word "verified" assumes membership. (Fair Trade Federation members are verified, not certified. I might take that on in another blog post. Customers are definitely confused by these terms and how they differ. This could be one of the reasons the word "verified" was chosen for the new logo.) The FTF website explains the latest logo as follows. The new verified logo features a modern woven pattern, symbolizing our fair trade community's global reach and interconnected commitment to fairness and equality. It represents rigorous fair trade standards, giving consumers confidence in their purchasing decisions.

Members are allowed to post the new logo in black & white, white, terracotta (a rust color), or cenote (a dark teal-green shade.) We chose terracotta for our websites.

 

OK, my fellow verified members - here is some clarification. If you were either at the recent Fair Trade Federation conference or you weren't but you saw oodles of selfies and conference pics on Instagram and Facebook, you might have noticed signage that showed off the new FTF logo in pink, seafoam green, navy blue and a host of other fun colors. I asked FTF staff about that. I was told that members can only use the colors noted in the paragraph above. Chris Solt, Executive Director of FTF told me "the organization uses a few additional colors in the full branding." Phooey.  I was digging the fuchsia shade they used in some of FTF in-house artwork. 

 

So it's 2024. And Dunitz is VERIFIED Fair / Trade Federation.  We proudly post the latest logo on our websites with those from other organizations we're proud to be affiliated with. Museum Store Association. Green America. Fair Trade Los Angeles. I promise, when we run out of and reprint more story cards and business cards, they also will feature the newest logo. One more question. What do you think of the most recent FTF rebrand and logo? -ND