Facing History and Ourselves: Annual Benefit Dinner

For more than 45 years, Facing History and Ourselves has been impacting students and classrooms around the world by promoting their understanding of history and their roles in creating change. Facing History’s five-year strategic plan is aimed at scaling programs across North America. This pivotal moment in the organization’s growth called for a bold, new visual identity to be featured at its national Annual Benefit Dinner. 

Designing a powerful visual identity.

Facing History’s strategic plan is rooted in its vision for the future – a world where knowledge, empathy, and action overcome racism, antisemitism, and prejudice. The visual identity for its Annual Benefit Dinner needed to reflect the incredible impact of Facing History over the years and the importance of scaling this work to shape the future. Rmrkbl developed an abstract symbol embodying the organization’s core value proposition: Tomorrow is today.

Illustrating impact and inspiring action.

A visual identity must reflect how a brand sees itself and, in this case, how a brand will see itself. For the Annual Benefit Dinner, Facing History aimed to publish materials that illustrated its impact and inspired action to support its work. Rmrkbl’s design met those goals by incorporating the concepts of time, urgency, and action through its use of bright brand colors and the illusion of movement. The design translated seamlessly across print and digital invitations, website banners, posters, and dinner programs.

The results.

The fresh and pointed visual identity motivated constituents to attend the Annual Benefit Dinner, hosted in more than 10 cities across the US and Canada. Facing History accomplished its event goals, inspiring and sharing its story with its community of supporters and raising critical funds in the form of multi-year commitments to keep its work going strong. Tomorrow is indeed today.

“Rmrkbl’s work on Facing History and Ourselves’ suite of benefit designs elevated the look and feel of the 40-year-old organization’s invitations, programs, and web presence to a new level.”

— Anne Burt, Facing History and Ourselves