Social Justice Finds Common Ground
Georgia Appleseed Center for Law and Justice was established more than 12 years ago to define and root out systemic injustice in Georgia. Georgia Appleseed is a member of the 18 center Appleseed network, a network founded nearly 25 years ago by the 35th Reunion Class of the Harvard Law School Class of 1958. Good Thinking was asked in 2015 to help the organization revise and update its story as it approached its 10th anniversary.
The organization’s signature accomplishment at that moment in history was the passage of the Georgia Juvenile Code in 2013 which went into effect January 1, 2014. The accomplishment was (and is) symbolic of its determinedly nonpartisan approach to social change made possible by the organization’s balanced and objective research and data-driven, practical solutions discovered by battalions of fact-gathering pro bono attorney crisscrossing the state to interview policy stakeholders including juvenile court judges, prosecutors, defense counsel, government agency leaders, case workers, and court appointed special advocates.
The approach is the guiding principle behind Georgia Appleseed’s mission to advance justice through law and policy reform and community engagement. And that is where Good Thinking began reformulating Georgia Appleseed’s brand story.
“The brand change was a significant break from the past identity, and opened up the narrative possibilities.”
The tagline line “Sowing the Seeds of Justice” was an obvious, longstanding tagline used by the Appleseed network around the nation, including Georgia’s. To signal change, we worked with the client to create a fresh but complementary tagline that brought renewed focus to its core principles, “Justice at Our Core.” Designers Kathi Roberts and Terry Combahee led the creative team with fierce determination and patience.
From there, we changed the focus of the story from the apple tree to the apple itself, with the seed of justice at the center. The palette and font choices were made bolder and more contemporary—in our judgement—then applied to the look of the new website. The change was a significant break from the past identity, and opened up the narrative possibilities.
During the course of our exhaustive branding work, both Sharon Hill and her right-hand woman, Margot Gold, pushed us to sharpen and define the visual and editorial message behind the brand story. In the end, we convinced them that the new design met 80% of the criteria the client expected and the rest of the creative choices, the other 20%, would require them to trust our instincts and let the system live and grow. They did that.
“They knew the brand voice of the organization belonged to many, not few, and personal reflections on motivations and outcomes expanded the narrative rather than diluted it.”
Next, came a great labor of love: “Uncommon Ground”, a mini-documentary story that told the ten year story of Georgia Appleseed and gave voice to its greatest donors, supporters, and volunteers. Initially, Sharon Hill was nervous about switching from her current (and talented) film production team to us. After all, the deadline was tight and the film would be viewed live in front of more than 250 of the organization’s biggest individual and institutional donors. It had to be very, very good. She acquiesced and agreed to hire us to produce the story, saying with her characteristically former judge, steely, blue-eyed stare-down, “Don’t let me down.” We didn’t.
Judge Hill then put out a call to some of her most visible and active volunteers, committee chairs, donors, and program partners–a who’s who of the Atlanta legal community. Of the 40+ people she asked to participate in the story, more than 30 said, “Yes.” Oops.
We now had on hand a classic dog caught car problem. Many willing film interview participants and a very limited budget. We would need to travel to multiple locations, set up, film and edit more than 30 individual storytellers. Yet, to tell some their voices would not be needed because the budget and deadline was restricted was, well, unthinkable.
Good Thinking devised an inexpensive way to meet and interview all 30+ willing participants, traveling to 5 locations in which 5-8 interviewees would gather over the course of four weeks.
This led to another challenge: more than 30 hours of raw video tape to sort through. Our film director, Neil Fried, did not flinch, pouring through video day and night for one solid week, viewing every second then selecting the best portions from each interview. All were assembled in one 20-minute tape for client review.
To their everlasting credit, Sharon Hill and her team did not object to our short take picks—they knew the brand voice of the organization belonged to many, not few, and personal reflections on motivations and outcomes expanded the narrative rather than diluted it.
Meanwhile, the budget did not and could not change—to complete the film story, Good Thinking was exceptionally generous in its in-kind giving. It was worth the extra effort. In the end, 13 of the 30+ interviewees were included in the final 7.5 minute mini-documentary narrative. Rather than leave the other 17+ completely out of the effort, we edited all video segments into 30+ individual short cuts and created an interactive grid (we called it the “Brady Bunch Wall”) that would live on the site indefinitely. This allowed every voice to be heard—and small personal stories to reinforce the complete organization story.
Looking back, Good Thinking learned three important things:
- When you make a commitment, keep it, even if the scope accelerates beyond the approved budget. The cause was (and is) more important than the money.
- The passion and intelligence of the individual stakeholders enriched our understanding of some of the most intractable social justice issues of the day; we gained by learning and we paid for our education with our generosity.
- Above all, we did not let down either Sharon Hill or her colleagues and supporters at Georgia Appleseed—the film was a hit and helped elevate the organization’s reputation for bipartisan problem solving through inclusive, balanced solution finding.
I shared this film last year with another filmmaker whose opinion I respect. After watching the video she sent me a note: “It’s not the most high-level production I have seen but I’m glad it helped your client connect with its supporters. That’s what is most important anyway.”
At first, I was a little disappointed by her comment. Then I was elated. She saw the beauty in the story, not its production value. She realized the film was made for a single client for a single purpose for a single moment within the constraints of budget and schedule. And the donors loved it. She saw the Greater Good.
The film was personal to those who actively participated in the work of Georgia Appleseed. It moved the right people motivated by good work Georgia Appleseed does.
Not all audiences are similarly moved by a single piece of storytelling—but the cause of social justice and great equality impacts every audience. And that is plenty good.
