UN Women and GeoLab help women entrepreneurs create a visual style

Branding and a unique visual style play a major role in the success of any business. However, small and medium-sized women entrepreneurs, who often have limited resources, have difficulty finding the necessary finances for this expensive service. Consequently, they have less access to quality visual style.

Together with companies that are signatories to the United Nations Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEPs), UN Women often supports women entrepreneurs with initiatives that address their challenges. One such initiative was a collaboration with the innovation and technology laboratory GeoLab, which resulted in the awarding of visual branding services to two women entrepreneurs.

GeoLab lecturers and alumni volunteered to help with the process. Designers Nini Gejadze and Nutsa Glonti created a logo and a small brand book for Irina Vanishvili, a 63-year-old entrepreneur who lives in the village of Ateni in the Shida Kartli region and runs a hospitality space.

Irina offers guests Georgian dishes and culinary masterclasses. At the same time, she prepares tea and essential oils from medicinal herbs, which she sells in branded packaging.

“I proudly attach this logo to my products,” Irina says. “It shows even more clearly that I take my work seriously, am focused on development and pay attention to quality. Moreover, I notice that using the logo also has a positive effect on the demand for products.”

In the future, Irina plans to add felt processing and ceramic products to her masterclasses. She has already taken special courses and studied both crafts, so she wants to offer guests, especially children, new, enjoyable and fun activities as soon as possible.

The UN Women and GeoLab initiative was also memorable for designer Nini Gejadze, as it was her first time working on a logo and brand book. “It was an interesting and positive experience,” she reflects. “I helped a female entrepreneur develop her small business, and I hope I made at least a minor contribution to her success.”

GeoLab has been a WEPs signatory since 2020. Prior to this initiative, the company had already awarded five female entrepreneurs with branding support and taught six women graphic design and social media marketing for free. The company plans to implement initiatives aimed at women’s empowerment in the future.

Based on the WEPs, cooperation between UN Women and the Georgian private sector began in 2016. More than 300 companies of various sizes have already signed on to the principles. This direction is part of the Women’s Economic Empowerment component of the project “Good Governance for Gender Equality in Georgia”, which is funded by the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad).