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Accounting and Auditing Board of Ethiopia

Making trust visible

Brand Strategy · Visual Identity

Building a distinctive brand strategy and visual identity for the Accounting and Auditing Board of Ethiopia, an institution working to strengthen professional standards, accountability, and confidence in financial reporting.

The Institution

An identity built on responsibility.

The Accounting and Auditing Board of Ethiopia plays an important role in protecting the public interest through oversight of the accounting and auditing profession.

Its work calls for more than regulatory authority. It requires clarity, consistency, and trust among professionals, institutions, businesses, and the wider public.

Resolution Studio approached the assignment by connecting AABE's institutional mandate with a brand strategy and visual language that could communicate its values across every point of interaction.

From the values set out in AABE's brand guidelines

  1. Integrity
  2. Fairness
  3. Accountability
  4. Excellence

The Strategy

Before the design, a clear direction.

The work began by examining AABE's institutional role, audiences, communication needs, and aspirations.

The strategic direction focused on a recognizable, professional, and trustworthy identity, and on bringing greater clarity and consistency to how the institution presents itself.

The approach set out at inception

  1. 01ResearchUnderstanding AABE's goals, vision, services, values, audiences and media landscape.
  2. 02StrategyBrand core, visual identity direction, positioning and messaging.
  3. 03ProductionThe brand strategy document, the brand guidelines and the collateral.
  4. 04Knowledge transferTraining and guidance for AABE staff on using the brand.

From the Brand Strategy Inception Report, December 2023. The resulting framework defined the principles guiding AABE's positioning, personality, voice, visual expression and future communication.

The Mark

Continuity, expressed through form.

A

The Visual Language

A language of clarity and confidence.

The mark develops into a complete system: a palette led by institutional blue, two typefaces for two languages, and a flowing line pattern that carries the identity into every format.

Colour

Institutional blue leads. Its impression is one of confidence, stability, professionalism and dependability.

  1. AABE Primary
    HEX
    #1F4799
    RGB
    31 / 71 / 153
    CMYK
    98 / 84 / 4 / 0
  2. Secondary
    HEX
    #0B46AF
    RGB
    11 / 70 / 175
    CMYK
    96 / 79 / 0 / 0
  3. Tertiary
    HEX
    #053E80
    RGB
    5 / 62 / 128
    CMYK
    100 / 86 / 22 / 7
  4. Black
    HEX
    #000000
    Shown as black. The guidelines list this swatch with the Tertiary values.
  5. White
    HEX
    #FFFFFF
    RGB
    255 / 255 / 255
    CMYK
    0 / 0 / 0 / 0

Typography

Two typefaces for two languages.

Basis Grotesque Pro English communication. Set in the identity's own cover title.

የኢትዮጵያ የሂሳብ
አያያዝ እና ኦዲት ቦርድ

Noto Sans Ethiopic Amharic communication. The institution's name, live in the typeface.
Basis Grotesque Pro Regular AABE's mission, as set in the brand guidelines.

Graphic Language

The lines, set free of the circle.

The flowing lines leave the emblem and become a pattern: placed on primary blue, on white or on black, always in one of the combinations the guidelines approve.

Primary, with the pattern in white at 12%
Secondary, with the pattern in Tertiary at 40%
Black, with the pattern in Secondary
White, with the pattern in Primary at 12%

Logo Variations

Four approved pairings.

Each keeps ample contrast. The supporting logomark can stand alone where viewers already know the brand.

Applications

Designed to work everywhere.

A strong identity is more than a recognizable symbol. It is a system that remains coherent across everyday communications, formal documents, public events, and physical spaces.

An open AABE presentation folder with a blue pocket, holding the AABE letterhead, beside a second letterhead sheet.
Letterhead and presentation folder.

Business cards: reverse sides, rebuilt from the logo and pattern vectors.

For people, at events and at work.

Event badges for media, attendees and organisers, and a staff identification card. Names, dates and details on these templates are samples.

Blue AABE event badge marked Media, on a blue lanyard.
White AABE event badge marked Attendee, on a blue lanyard.
Black AABE event badge marked Organizer, on a blue lanyard.
The front of an AABE staff identification card in a blue holder, with a template portrait and sample name.
Newsletter template cover: the AABE logo on blue with the line pattern, a dark blue title panel, and a photograph of a road leading towards industrial buildings.
Newsletter template inside page: a blue column with a portrait, a large photograph of a speaker at a conference, and article columns.
Newsletter template page with a large photograph of a networking event above three columns of text.

A publication system.

The newsletter template sets the pattern, the blues and Basis Grotesque Pro into a layout AABE's team can fill issue after issue. The copy shown is template placeholder text.

A round projecting sign on a city building: white AABE initials over blue flowing lines on black.
Outdoor signage design: a blue pylon with the AABE logo, contact details on a grey band, the address and a 100 metre direction arrow.Outdoor signage design: a pylon with a black logo band, contact details on white and a direction arrow on blue.Outdoor signage design: a blue pylon with the logo, a direction arrow, contact details and the address.

Wayfinding pylons from the outdoor signage artwork, beside a projecting sign from the brand guidelines.

A blue AABE notepad with the line pattern beside a lined white pad.
Notepads
A dark AABE desk calendar for 2024 with blue line pattern.
Desk calendar
A white seminar tote bag with blue handles and the bilingual AABE logo.
Seminar bag
An AABE presentation folder standing open, blue outside with the pattern, white inside.
Presentation folder

The Environment

A presence beyond the page.

Out of doors and at events, the mark keeps its proportions and the lines keep moving.

A brushed-metal plaque on a grey wall, with the bilingual AABE logo engraved into it, beside a glass building.
Engraved metal plaque
A white flag carrying the blue AABE logomark, flying against a clear blue sky.
Flag
Two AABE roll-up banners standing side by side, one black and one blue, each with the bilingual logo and the line pattern.
Roll-up banners

Closing

One institution. One coherent identity.

The AABE identity brings together institutional purpose, strategic direction, and visual consistency in a system designed for everyday communication.

From the central mark to publications, professional materials, and public-facing environments, each element contributes to a recognizable expression of the institution's role and values.

Purpose, made recognizable

Client
Accounting and Auditing Board of Ethiopia (AABE)
Project
Brand Strategy and Visual Identity
Services
Brand Strategy · Visual Identity · Brand Guidelines · Collateral and Signage Design
Languages
Amharic and English

Our role

Resolution Studio developed the brand strategy, designed the logo and visual identity, wrote the brand guidelines and designed the stationery, publication templates, event materials and signage. AABE's mandate, programmes and communications are its own.

Resolution Studio works at the intersection of people, ideas, and systems.We believe meaningful change happens when strategy, communication, creativity, technology, and collaboration work together.

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