Redesigning the RisingVoices logo, hands?

Original RV logo. Gill sans text, adinkra rising over horizon icon.

I've been working on a new brand/logo for Rising Voices. The old logo, though nice, has started to feel dated, and never really worked well on most backgrounds due to it's soft shadow and black+orange contrast.

While we're willing to use a variant of the old logo (GV adinkra icon rising over the horizon like the sun) we also want to explore completely new directions to see if there is a simpler visual metaphor that would work better on its own.

Various icons taken from the Noun Project, a great resource for open-licensed iconography with a thought-provoking search function that gives you interesting results for queries like “community” and “help”.

Here's a simple start using Etica, the playful headline font from the redesigned GV site and a flattened GV icon:

Etica font, classic adinkra icon.

Next the same font, but with a raised hand rather than an adinkra. It's visually simple and strong, but does the hand convey a meaning that matches the mission of Rising Voices?

Etica font, single hand icon

A variant with multiple hands raised together. I think this gets at Rising Voices better than a single hand. It's very similar to the old Voices Without Votes logo, but that's not necessarily a bad thing!

Etica font, rising hands icon.

This version might show the hands “working together” rather than simply being raised and asking for attention. Do you think it works visually as well as it does metaphorically?