Australian Birth Stories

Nurturing a progressive shift in the mainstream narrative of birth practice in Australia.

Scope
Identity, Brand Narrative and Communication Design

Team
Bec Nally, Creative Director + Lead Designer
Jason Rohmursanto, Supporting Designer

Client
Sophie Walker

—
Completed 2020

Scope
Identity, Brand Narrative and Communication Design

Team
Bec Nally, Creative Director
+ Lead Designer
Jason Rohmursanto,
Supporting Designer

Client
Sophie Walker

—
Completed 2020

Australian Birth Stories centre the person who is at the heart of birthing a child — the mother — fostering an open dialogue around diverse birth practices through a thoughtfully curated and ever-growing library of Australian based stories.

With a Master’s in Public Health and a passion for Women’s Health, a few years ago founder and host Sophie Walker identified a need for narratives that could empower, educate and support women to navigate their own personal journey into motherhood.

Public Journal worked with Sophie to design core brand elements to compliment her main promotional activity — a thoughtfully curated reel of documentary style birth photography and stories on Instagram.

Photography credits:

Post 1 by Lisa Sorgini
Post 2 by Hanna Hill
Post 3 by Jane McCrae
Post 4 by Bobbi Lockyer
Post 5 by Sophia Costa

Australian Birth Stories’ engaging Instagram activity led to a successful launch of the podcast and subscriptions saw solid growth in the market, rapidly reaching number 1 in the Kids and Family category on Apple Podcasts and making strong and steady gains in market reach. To date, the podcast has achieved 3.5 million downloads.

The visual language of the brand articulates the spectrum of experiences offered in the Podcast — from soft, tender and nurturing to raw, emotional and challenging — the intentional contrast in tone nurtures new understandings and knowledges to support diverse birth experiences.

Australian Birth Stories on Apple Podcasts

After a successful few years and almost two hundred podcasts, this year Public Journal worked with Sophie to mature her brand narrative through a number of product articulations.

The first and most important brand activity was to work with Sophie to write script for her now influential podcast series and clearly convey her respect and acknowledgement of First Nations peoples and Indigenous sovereign birth practices.

All funds for this copywriting service were donated to indigenousmidwives.org.au

Navigating the very personal experience of childbirth can be daunting for a potential mother; inherent bias and social stigma in the health space can be the ugly flip side of progressive birth choices and inclusive health practice.

The diversity of human responses to birth practice have found a welcome place in this ground-breaking brand; carefully revealing the natural, real, bloody, beautiful, painful, resilient and sometimes devastating aspects of birth and motherhood through the lens of a diverse cross section of people and peoples.

Birth Photography by Hilary Walker

As the brand developed and became actively engaged with subscribers and followers, Sophie identified a need for learning resources for specific phases of pregnancy and motherhood. Public Journal worked with Sophie to develop a series of assets for two new audio series packages now available — Ready to Birth and Discovering Motherhood.

Public Journal developed a suite of illustrations, rendered with sympathy to the curves and colourway of the existing brand elements.

Scroll for pre-natal content.

Artwork is intentionally soft, relaxed and expressive — acting as a nurturing entry point for new Mums who are trying to navigate the sometimes daunting new world of birth knowledge and are looking to feel supported. This thoughtfully written set of materials enables new Mums to find ways to embrace their story, however it unfolds.

To neatly package the new offerings within the core brand, Public Journal developed an animated sequence of the brand’s well known logo, with a playful nod to the audio series.

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Australian Birth Stories