A trusted digital partner for Africa's leading think tank
SAIIA's digital partner since 2017: website, digital brand, microsites, hosting and support for the South African Institute of International Affairs.
The digital brand
SAIIA's blue and gold, reworked for screens, with templates that let the team publish quickly and still look consistent.
The need
Who they needed to reach
Policy makers, diplomats, researchers, journalists, funders and students in South Africa, across Africa and around the world
What stood in the way
The South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA) is an independent public policy think tank working towards a well-governed, peaceful, economically sustainable and globally engaged Africa. It publishes a large and growing body of research, from policy briefs and occasional papers to the South African Journal of International Affairs, and runs events, programmes and projects across many themes. When we started working together in 2017, that work was hard to find and harder to navigate online, and the brand did not carry well onto screens.
What success looked like
A website where anyone can find SAIIA's research by theme and type, a brand that looks as authoritative on a phone as in print, and a partner SAIIA can rely on as its work and projects grow.
How we met the need
We began by rebuilding the website from the content up. We completely reorganised SAIIA's content hierarchy around its research themes and publication types, and redesigned how research, events, experts and multimedia are presented. At the same time we reworked the digital version of the brand, from colour and typography on screen to social media, presentation and publication templates, infographics and a logo animation for video. Since then we have stayed on as SAIIA's digital partner, hosting and supporting the site, and building microsites for its projects as they come up, including T20 South Africa for the G20 in 2025.
The process
The South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA) is one of Africa’s leading think tanks. Its researchers work on foreign policy, economic diplomacy, governance, natural resources, climate change, foresight and the G20, and their work reaches governments, diplomats and the media across the continent and beyond.
We became SAIIA’s digital partner in 2017, starting with a full rebuild of its website. The research was there, but it was hard to find. We completely reorganised the content hierarchy, so every publication, event and expert sits under clear research themes and types, and redesigned how it is presented, from the homepage to the reading experience of a single paper.
The brand needed the same care. We reworked the digital version of SAIIA’s identity, so its blue and gold work on screens, and built a toolkit the team uses every day: social media and presentation templates, publication covers, infographics and a logo animation for video.
Since then the partnership has grown with SAIIA’s work. We host and support the main site and have built microsites for SAIIA projects, most recently T20 South Africa for the G20 think tank engagement group in 2025. Nine years on, we are still SAIIA’s digital partner.
What the client got
SAIIA's research is organised so policy makers, researchers and journalists can find it by theme and type, and the brand looks as authoritative online as in print. Over nine years the partnership has grown from one website rebuild to a family of sites, and SAIIA has a digital partner that knows its work, its people and its audiences.
Visit the live site ↗