World ORT rebrands at Buenos Aires confab

Designed by Israeli branding company FIRMA, the rebrand was revealed to delegates at World ORT’s annual Board of Representatives meeting, which is taking place in Buenos Aires.

By ILANIT CHERNICK
Updated: MAY 10, 2018 03:08
Ort rebrands itself with a new logo (photo credit: Courtesy)
Ort rebrands itself with a new logo
(photo credit: Courtesy)
World ORT, the largest Jewish education and vocational training NGO, has rebranded and introduced a new logo, it announced in Buenos Aires on Wednesday.
“The change emphasizes ORT’s unique ability to provide educational solutions to communities worldwide, through its global network of schools and programs,” the organization said.
“The stripped back logo, centered on the two-toned O of ORT, represents World ORT’s status as a global service provider, its national organizations working together toward a common goal. It also symbolizes ORT’s enabling of its students and communities to reach out, to connect and to form bonds that stretch beyond national, religious and generational boundaries.”
Its tagline – Impact Through Education – reflects ORT’s mission to use education, driven by Jewish values, to effect positive change for individuals, for their communities and for the world at large, as they develop 21st-century skills, “as well as the confidence and the social responsibility to use those skills for the greater good,” the NGO said.
The picture on the tagline shows a child connecting and holding hands with a robot – emphasizing the importance of empowering people through technological education from a young age.
The organization’s CEO Avi Ganon compared the adaptation of World ORT’s brand to the adaptability of the organization itself. “ORT’s longevity is due to its ability to meet the most pressing needs of the time, whether teaching crafts and trades in 19th-century Russia, vocational skills to displaced persons after the Second World War or, as today, being world leaders in STEM [Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics] education,” he said. “Our rebrand reflects our goal to provide 21st-century solutions to 21st-century needs around the world.
It illustrates the continued importance of ORT today: working with humility and simplicity, through education, to hand individuals and communities the tools to exceed their potential, helping themselves and wider society.”
Designed by Israeli branding company FIRMA, the rebrand was revealed to delegates at World ORT’s annual Board of Representatives meeting, which is taking place in Buenos Aires.
Chief relationship officer Avital Govrin, who oversaw the process, said the change marks the beginning of a new, confident phase for the organization.
“We have tended to hide our light under a bushel in recent years, but this award-worthy rebrand will help us to tell our story to a wider audience: though we are proud of our storied past, we are an organization for today and tomorrow, and are passionate about placing the future in the next generation’s hands,” she said.
World ORT is active across five continents and 37 countries, working to uplift Jewish communities through STEM education, and at the same time imparting aspects of Judaism as a means of bringing those communities that have lost their connection back to their roots.