On the morning of June 14th in 2017, the community of Latimer Road, awoke to the tragedy of The Grenfell Tower. For the next 24 hours this community would see the largest self initiated relief effort by the British public in recent times. Amongst the many volunteers stood out an 80 year old woman, called Luna from Harlesden. Like many of the people who were compelled to lend a helping hand, Luna decided to make a choice to keep the flower and candle arrangements neat and tidy, day in and day out, months beyond the tragedy. Under the same humanitarian spirit, Grenfell Speaks was born.
The self initiated brief of a handful of volunteers, including myself, was to create a platform that could cater to this growing community, by helping share first hand information and stories surrounding the event, all with the intention of keeping the story alive in the public eye.
Final Logo Design for Grenfell Speaks
Word of Mouth.
Grenfell or “green field” (in Old english) very soon began to be associated with the color green. We wanted to create a wholesome brand that was a true reflection of the collected effort of the community. For that we needed an idea that was simple enough to understand and be replicated by all. Given the nature of how information was being shared i.e social media, we adopted the green heart emoji as our initial logo. All the branding was consequential to the this concept.
To further inforce our brand we created a campaign that sublimely could trend our channel. #GreenForGrenfell was derived from a local story, where students at Fulham Cross Girls' school decided to show solidarity by wearing Green. With the help of many volunteers, we would further this campaign by posting a photo a day of our participants holding up a sign with the hashtag written on a piece of card by themselves, stamped with our green heart emoji.
Community.
With help of growth marketing expert Emmanuel Aremu, in just 4 short weeks, we were able to establish and deliver a platform across 4 major streams of social media (Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube). Currently it broadcasts to a collected following of over 12,000 people, has had mentions in several news networks including Jon Snow on Channel 4 and London Time, and overall is viewed as a major point of contact for community led dialogue around the heart of West London.
Grenfell Speaks still remains under the management of the local community.
For information on how to contribute contact Faisal Metalsi at info@grenfellspeaks.com