Early on in the project, there had already been an effort to create an identity and voice for Project Sammaan, with the aim to bring together the different streams of work and thought, while giving a unified face to the project as a whole.

There are two distinct components within the framework of the larger project — one that is internal facing, representative of a collaborative consortium of stakeholders rethinking sanitation systems (i.e. Sammaan), and the second, a user-facing, sanitation system prototype borne out of the collaborative effort of Project Sammaan. The question that loomed large at the beginning of the branding stream was whether there was a need for a second brand for the user-facing sanitation system prototype. To understand this, we examined key features for both across categories of target user group, objectives, drivers/motivators and the intended role of brand identity.

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Project Sammaan is a development project that seeks to create improved sanitation services for the urban poor residing in slums in India. The project is being driven by a consortium that consists of Quicksand Design Studio, Jameel Poverty Action Lab, & the city governments of two large cities in India. It is supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF).

The name “Sammaan” stems from our belief that it’s very important to transform the user experience for these facilities from one heavily coated with shame to one of respect and dignity.

The project seeks to design & build 119 sanitation facilities in urban slums in India. Collectively, these facilities will have 1200+ toilets, bathrooms, spaces for washing clothes, and will benefit 60,000+ people. The project started in February 2012 and will last for 16-19 months at the end of which these toilets will be operational.

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