Goalkeepers is a global initiative dedicated to accelerating progress towards the UN Global Sustainability Goals. Across various events, programs, and published reports, Goalkeepers highlights progress achieved toward the 17 Goals, holds governments accountable, and brings together a new generation of leaders to address the world’s major challenges. The initiative’s key output is the annual Goalkeepers Report, which each year records the statistics and metrics that help the world community evaluate progress towards achieving the Goals—a "blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all".
Over the course of two years, Pentagram partnered with the Goalkeepers team to create a new design system and evolved visual identity for the brand. The new system is bold, graphic, and colorful, marking a decidedly youthful spirit that was missing in the brand’s previous look. The entire visual language revolves around a precise 10.6-degree angle, a slant derived from the iconic SDG wheel mark. This slant motif is carried through in all aspects of the brand, serving as a container for information, a frame for photography, or expressive ornamentation. A refined word mark also echoes this same geometry, employing Commercial Type’s Giorgio Sans, and includes a tweaked SDG wheel. Multiple lock-ups and sized logos, including a monogram version, were also created to optimize the brand for many different types of applications, across print, digital, and out-of-home.
While Goalkeepers’ new brand is now more fresh and contemporary, its usability has also been deeply improved. The system was developed to be intuitive and highly flexible, allowing any of Goalkeepers’ worldwide partners to easily implement without training. Care was taken to ensure accessibility and legibility was preserved across typography and color palettes.
In addition to designing the system, Pentagram also designed an exhaustive guidelines document which could serve as a touchstone for various siloed teams working around the world that bring each iteration of Goalkeepers to life. To aid rollout, a comprehensive suite of templates and example applications were distributed. These templates show how the new system can feel at turns serious and formal for research reports, while also joyful and exuberant for social media posts. A motion toolkit was also provided, instructing the Goalkeepers event team how to produce a range of video assets such as title cards and lower thirds.
Since data is at the heart of Goalkeepers’ mission, custom data visualization styles were also created to demonstrate how the system can extend to unique graphs and charts. The visualizations take center stage on a refreshed Goalkeepers website, designed by Pentagram for the 2022 edition. Under the title “The Future of Progress,” the 2022 Goalkeepers Report underscores the urgent need for action in the face of Covid-19. While some data visualizations serve as visual aids for the report’s text, others work to communicate 18 key data indicators that measure the world's progress. Working with the Goalkeepers’ team and its research partners, Pentagram created a robust data visualization language that seamlessly integrates with the overall branding program.
