Project Overview

AHRI stands for the Australian Human Relations Institute and it is the primary owner and driver for the HR industry in Australia. AHRI is aware of the growing importance of HR in corporate Australia and the urgent need to educate business leaders to the power of good HR and how it impacts positively on culture, productivity and bottom line performance.

Project Commissioner

AHRI

Project Creator

Traffic Brand Agency

Project Brief

The primary goal of AHRI in Australia is to increase the level of competency and professionalism of HR practitioners. The AHRI strategy is to is to increase the number of certified HR practitioners to elevate standards and make it easier for business owners to identify and hire the best-qualified individuals. (Similar strategy to CPA - Certified Practicing Accountants). AHRI knows that the increasingly disruptive business environment will require certified HR professionals a seat at the boardroom table for companies to maximise company performance.

Project Innovation/Need

Working with AHRI, Traffic created a new logotype and 'cornerstone' icon that reflected the new mission and vision for the member organisation. The creative solution was designed to inspire members to be visionary, bold and proud and the existing blue and green colours were retained in the new deliverables. One of the key campaign requirements was to identify with and relate to the diverse membership profiles. This was achieved using the cornerstone device linked to the various key targets with specific messages across traditional and digtal/social media channels.

Design Challenge

The first part of the challenge is the category itself which is quite dry and staid, and hard to excite people about. Additionally, the name of the organisation - and even the associated acronym 'AHRI' - are not the most memorable or designer-friendly starting points to create a brand from. Finally, the organisation itself had multiple levels of stakeholders, from different disciplines and with disparate agendas, all of whom needed to be consulted along the design journey.

Effectiveness

The effectiveness of the rebranded AHRI organisation will take time to be fully evaluated but early indications are positive. There has been an increase in enrolments to the certification programme and attendences at the 2017 AHRI annual conference were at a record high. Additionally there is growing interest in the many benefits of HR from both big corporates and small business.