Violet Studios
2024 Year in Review

Kate Rodman, Violet Studios Co-Founder & Creative Director, reflects on the highlights and milestones of 2024

Our First Year as Violet

While the folks on our team have been working in the movement for years and providing design services for a while through our sister org, Vegan Hacktivists, this year marked an important milestone — 2024 was our first official year as Violet Studios!

The explosion of work reaffirmed the importance of what we do and the trust you’ve placed in us.

We were blown away by the response when we began promoting our pro-bono design services. So many of you reached out and decided to trust us with the careful crafting of your brands, websites, and more. We’re grateful for this response and your confidence in us. 

The large volume of requests was staggering, highlighting how much design and communications services are needed in our movement for animals. In fact, a survey by AfA among its network of Asian NGOs revealed that communications was the second-highest capacity need, right after funding.

This confirmed what we already knew: There is a deep need for high-quality visual communication to support our shared mission for animals.

As a small team made up of volunteers and a handful of staff, handling the large volume of requests has been a learning experience for us. But even within those growing pains, I’m so proud to say that we’ve completed hundreds of requests — large and small — in just one year.

Some Violet team members at AVA Summit 2024 in Washington, D.C.

The stats you’ll find below are just numbers – what’s harder to quantify is our true impact:

  • With our small but dedicated team, we’ve spent countless hours consulting dozens of organizations like yours, helping steer them in the right direction to avoid costly mistakes. 

  • We’ve created brands that speak volumes, equipping groups with the tools they need to fully and authentically represent themselves to their target audiences. 

  • Our website design and support services have saved organizations from hours of stress — not to mention cost — and now those sites are helping them communicate their missions to the world. 

For a small team like ours, achieving what we did in 2024 wasn’t easy, but our designers stepped up to the challenge!

We’re a team founded on a shared commitment to animal protection and advocacy, finding ways to use our skills to make a difference. The impact you're about to see was achieved by a team made of mostly volunteers, offering their expertise to further the movement.

Stats – 2024

Orgs Served:

73

(All-time: 151)

Services Provided:

184

(All-time: 304)

Estimated amount saved:

$578K

(All-time: $1.2M)

  • We’ve estimated the cost we’re saving to organizations (and the movement) with our completely free services by calculating what the industry cost would’ve been if these organizations had gone to the market to receive the same support. For the pricing, we are referencing the design industry standard: The Graphic Artists Guild Handbook: Pricing & Ethical Guidelines. The Graphic Artists Guild (GAG) has been the most reputable reference for professional design pricing in the world for decades; In fact, we think our estimate may be even undervalued, as the GAG updates their pricing guidelines every few years, and the last release was in 2021 — of course, market prices have only increased since then.

Served orgs on:

6 Continents

Nearly half of services went towards worldwide groups.

Worldwide: 43.46%
North America: 24.61%
Asia: 16.23%
Europe: 4.71%

Latin America: 4.71%
Oceania: 2.62%
Africa: 2.09%
Middle East: 1.57%

Logo Line-Up

Project Highlights

Motion Design Highlights

Check out our 2024 motion design reel, which showcases a mix of logo animations and other highlights from the past year. Our experienced motion designer, Thomas, brings a unique sense of energy and storytelling to each piece — transforming static visuals into vibrant, eye-catching moments. His work adds depth, movement, and personality to our designs, and we’re excited to share a glimpse of it with you!

Testimonials

  • Thrive Philanthropy has much gratitude to Violet Studios for our wonderful new design upgrade. It gives us that extra push to achieve Thrive’s mission. Their probono support is not only the best design we could ever have, they are an exceptional team. Kate, Elizabeth and Gabriele have been so generous with their time, skills and support for the work we do. They listened to all our ideas and dreams and made it a reality. Violet Studios is an essential part of expanding and growing the animal rights and vegan movement professionally.

    Meghana Rajanahally, Finance and Operations Manager, Thrive Philanthropy

  • I cannot imagine where we would be without Violet Studios' support in designing our donation platform. The fact that they genuinely understand and are committed to our mission ensured the final product truly reflected the spirit of our brief. Kate and her team were very responsive, had a 'can-do' attitude to challenges and showed incredible dedication to getting the design just right. They even provided proactive feedback and suggestions on platform content, subtly but significantly enhancing it. No other team could have met our needs better, even if we'd had an unlimited budget. This is an unbelievable service that more people should know about!

    Aidan Alexander, Co-founder, FarmKind

  • The team at Violet Studios was a dream come true for now several of our projects. They knew how to ask all the right questions, create a design that reflected our goals, and implement it on an easy to use and maintain website. Thank you friends at Violet Studios!

    David Meyer, CEO, Humane America Animal Foundation

  • Our organization has been contemplating a logo and website revival for over two years now. Our fears of lack of brand recognition and hesitancy to change were all made easy by Kate Rodman and the team at Violet Studios. The team were very communicative and made what could have been a long and stressful process very exciting and enjoyable. From the new logo to our new website, our network is thoroughly impressed as are we. There is no way we could have done all this without Violet Studios and we are eternally grateful for their hard work in making our brand revamp not only possible, but joyful!

    Andrea Diaz, Operations Director, Dharma Voices for Animals

  • Working with Violet Studios has been an immensely enriching experience! They consistently demonstrate excellence across all aspects: from understanding and anticipating our needs and limitations, to facilitating seamless communication, and, of course, delivering top-tier designs. Thanks to their expertise, we successfully launched a captivating campaign page to engage voters and politicians in Germany, right on schedule before the elections. Violet Studios proves to be an invaluable asset to the animal and vegan movement. Supporting them through donations ensures that multiple organizations will benefit from their exceptional work.

    Thomas Hecquet, Vorstandsvorsitzender/Director, Animal Society

  • Working with Violet Studios was a fantastic experience. Their team took the time to understand our mission and goals, ensuring the design captured the essence of our advocacy for animals and the planet. They truly understood our vision and brought it to life with creativity and professionalism. From start to finish, they were collaborative, attentive to feedback, and incredibly skilled at balancing our need for a minimalist, yet impactful design. Violet Studios truly exceeded our expectations. We are incredibly grateful for their work and the essential role they play in elevating organizations like ours, helping us communicate our mission with clarity and impact.

    Laura Fox
    President, Animal Kind Alliance  

  • Working with Kate and the team at Violet Studios has been an absolute pleasure. She is incredibly talented and truly nailed the brief, delivering work that far exceeded our expectations. The designs, branding, and animations were not only visually stunning but also perfectly aligned with our vision and goals. Her creativity and attention to detail resulted in fantastic work that we are proud to showcase. I would definitely recommend her to anyone looking for a professional, creative, and highly skilled designer. Thank you again for making the process so seamless and for producing such exceptional results!

    Robbie Lockie, CEO & Founder, The Freedom Food Alliance & foodfacts.org

  • Violet Studios’ social media consultancy was a great learning opportunity for our team. We were impressed by the insights and advice that were incredibly helpful and relevant to the needs of our culturally diverse team who engage with different online communities across Asia. 

    Gabriele was very open to answer every question we had ranging from the most basic to more specific, as well as providing customized tips and tricks to help us communicate with the online audiences in the most effective way. Without a doubt, this support has given us a right push towards the exact direction we were looking for!

    Communications Team, Animal Alliance Asia

  • It has been such an incredible experience for us as a new nonprofit to work with Violet Studios. From the very beginning, their team has been exceptionally generous with their time, insights, and skills. Their support has been a true game-changer for us. We were blown away and deeply touched by their amazing work and unwavering dedication. Thanks to their vision, expertise, and generosity, we now have a website and brand that we are proud to share with the world.

    – Dana, Jessica, Miko & Nam, Co-Founders, Flourish Coalition

  • Collaborating with Violet Studios has been an exceptional experience for our team. The social media report they provided us with was incredibly thorough and insightful, offering us valuable data that has helped us refine and improve our communication strategy.

    We are especially grateful to Gabriele, who demonstrated exceptional professionalism and expertise throughout the process. Her insights and recommendations were instrumental in our strategy. We are really pleased with the results and look forward to seeing her in the near future,


    Jesica Bon Denis, Communication Director, Fundación Veg

  • We are so grateful to everyone at Violet Studios for the fabulous brand revamp and new website. We are getting rave reviews about it from everyone – from other organisations, donors, and potential employees. The team within FIAPO is incredibly proud of the logo and the colours; the branding lifts us! Please know that what you've done for us is not just a website, but this rebrand gives us the confidence to move forward as we rebuild and raise resources for our work. 

    Bharati Ramachandran, CEO, Federation of Indian Animal Protection Organisations (FIAPO)

Collabs

We’re thrilled to have built ongoing relationships with these programs, which continue to reach out to us for design support. It’s been a pleasure to stay connected, and support the inspiring participants of these programs!

ProVeg’s Kickstarting for Good (K4G)

Learn More →

Krista Hiddema’s Strategic Planning for Animal Activism (SPAA)

Learn More →

Ambitious Impact’s Charity Entrepreneurship Program

Learn More →

Conferences

AVA Summit in Washington, DC

While we were providing design services through Vegan Hacktivists, our tech-focused sister organization, we realized that not everyone knew about our design offering — this was the main push that led to the formation of Violet. Attending the AVA Summit for the first time as Violet confirmed to us that this was the right call — we were moved by how warmly it was received! 

It meant so much to us to see people’s faces light up when they discovered our free services, or that we had worked on many brands that they already knew. We loved connecting with past clients in person — whether at our booth or a capacity-building meetup we co-hosted with VH — learning from other advocates, and building new connections along the way.

Find out why we’re already looking forward to AVA 2025 in our sister org’s blog!

AFAD in Hanoi, Viet Nam

Attending Asia Farm Animal Day (AFAD), organized by The Asia for Animals Coalition (AfA) and AVA International, was important to us for many reasons. Events like these deepen our understanding of the regions we work with, help us provide better support, and offer the opportunity to learn from fellow advocates. AFAD 2024 allowed us to connect and unite with those fighting for a better future for animals in Asia, and show them support. 

We can confidently say that we left AFAD with a deeper understanding of the needs of advocates in Asia and a greater awareness of the challenges they face. We also gained valuable insights into leadership, communications, and how to acknowledge and work with contexts that often go unnoticed.

Check out the top lessons Violet and VH brought home to learn more!

Additional Resources

With the launch of Violet’s website, we also introduced new resources to help you elevate your design skills and see what our services can look like.

A Place to Find Design Tips & Tricks

With the launch of Violet, we introduced our Knowledge Hub — a space dedicated to helping you build the design skills you need to confidently maintain and grow your brand.

Almost all the organizations we work with are too small to have in-house designers for day-to-day support, which is why we believe it’s so important for you to hone your own skills. At the end of the day, you’re the one responsible for keeping your brand consistent and impactful. Our Knowledge Hub includes not only tips for common questions but also a curated list of resources!

Sharing Design Insights and Behind-the-Scenes of Our Work

With our new identity comes new social media profiles! Be sure to follow us for:

  • Helpful design tips and advice

  • Behind-the-scenes looks at our work, showcasing the thought and design processes behind our free support for other advocates

  • Updates on the conferences we’re attending

Thanks to everyone who shaped Violet into what it is now! 

In 2024, we were able to increase the quality and quantity of design being produced for the animal advocacy movement and on behalf of Violet, I’d like to thank everyone who has supported or worked with us along the way.

Whether you’ve used our services and helped us learn about your invaluable missions, helped us evolve with each challenge you needed support with, or you’ve been following and supporting our work — we’re incredibly grateful to all of you.

I’m also immensely grateful for our design extraordinaries on our team, the talented volunteers who contributed to our mission, as well as those on our referral list who have stepped in to handle projects we couldn’t support due to bandwidth limitations or requests outside our scope. Without them, Violet wouldn’t be where it is today.

As we head into 2025, we’re carrying forward the valuable lessons we learned in 2024: Effectively managing a high volume of requests and prioritizing rest to ensure we can continue offering this service sustainably for the long term.

We’re planning to introduce an updated intake process for new requests to streamline our workflow and allow for more design time! At the same time, we’ll continue focusing on what we do best — and what was successful this year — delivering high-quality visual design services at no cost to organizations like yours, making a difference for animals.

None of this would be possible without incredible people like you.

It is people like you, who believe that high-quality design services should be accessible to everyone advocating for a better future for animals, who make this a reality. Help shine a light on the work of advocates, limited by small budgets or short-staffed teams, and ensure that their designs reflect their missions in 2025.

Your donation will allow other impactful organizations to focus on what they do best as we support them with our services at no cost.