Designing Icons to Represent All Family Types

Our Challenge

The Child Protection Ombudsman of Colorado was created to ensure the state’s complex child protection system consistently provides high-quality services to every child, family and community. After using stock icons for collateral, CPO found they lacked inclusivity and failed to depict families outside of the hegemonic, nuclear family. Eager to reflect the families the agency serves, the CPO partnered with Barefoot PR to create 50 icons that would allow the agency to accurately tell its story visually and connect with families of all types.

Our Solution

Barefoot PR facilitated a strategy session, followed by our listening & learning process with CPO’s team to ensure a wide range of representation. Categories of diverse family dynamics including women & women with children, teens, and elder caretakers were created, along with the ambiguous color treatment representing gender, hair textures, wheelchairs, or religious headdresses.

Barefoot PR’s designer created one-of-a-kind icons that are more representative, inclusive, and comprehensive to The Child Protection Ombudsman of Colorado’s graphic needs. 

CPO Icons

CPO Icons in Annual Report

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