RSF – Reporters sans frontières
French logo version
RSF – Reporters sans frontières (Reporters Without Borders) was founded in the French city of Montpellier in 1985 and named following the model of the Doctors Without Borders. Since 1995 the non-profit and non-governmental organization has its seat in Paris. It’s self-chosen purpose is to promote freedom of press and to defend and help persecuted journalists – and that worldwide. 13 national and regional offices and 146 correspondents form a network around the globe.
A problem in the field of communication arose with the translation of Reporters Without Border’s name into many languages and with diverging designs developed over time by the different offices. In 2020 RSF’s headquarter commissioned Paris-based agency BETC to redraw a top-level corporate design that would unify the international presence while leaving a lot of freedom on the lower levels. In this post you see images taken from the Reporters sans frontières Mini Guideline 2020, from RSF’s website and from magazines designed by Stéphanie Barcelo and Modular Agency.
Since the introduction, all offices use the initials RSF in front of the translation of the full name in the given language. Both the logo and the name are set from Media Sans SemiCondensed designed by Jean-Baptiste Levée from Production Type. The face is also used worldwide for typesetting the headlines. A major advantage of Media Sans in this use are its extremely short ascenders and descenders: this way headlines using lowercase letters are as impressive as those set in all caps.
With regard to the reading text, the French headquarter chose Akzidenz-Grotesk and its Condensed variant as companions.
Some of the international logo versions: Portuguese, English, Spanish, and German
Business cards
Membership cards
Homepage
Annual report 2023, Portuguese edition. Publication design by Stéphanie Barcelo.
Collateral Freedom on the English language version of the website
Cover of What It’s Like to Be a Journalist in the Sahel (2023). Publication design by Stéphanie Barcelo.
Map with key facts from What It’s Like to Be a Journalist in the Sahel (2023)
Barometer on the 2024 World Press Freedom Index
Mask up! Covers for the annual reports from the first two years dominated by the Covid-19 pandemic
Publication overview on the Portuguese language version of the website
Media Sans is heavily used on RSF’s social media channels, too.
Spread from The Great Leap Backwards of Journalism in China (2021). Publication design by Modular Agency.
Spread from The Great Leap Backwards of Journalism in China (2021). Publication design by Modular Agency.
Le journalisme face au Sexisme (2021). Publication design by Stéphanie Barcelo.
