&Walsh's protest poster-inspired branding for online community and women's-only island, SuperShe

The new work from &Walsh comes with the launch of the brand's latest major offer, its app, which was conceived of by SuperShe founder Kristina Roth to cater for the many women within the SuperShe network who weren't able to get themselves onto a private island retreat (a week costs between €2,900 –€5,900).

Jessica Walsh's studio worked across creating the branding, strategy and merchandise designs across clothing and beauty/bath products for SuperShe; as well as on the app creation.

"Now more than ever, with people working remotely and not able to meet up in person, we need ways to connect and form communities like this – digital platforms where women can share inspiration, and help one another out. SuperShe is a powerful tool to form connections and friendships with other women!" says Walsh.

The design and strategic direction were informed by a desire to go against much of the women-only communities that are around already: "we realised that many of them were overly prescribing the way women in that community 'should be'," says Walsh. "Be a girl boss, travel the world and wear your nightly face masks. Feminism had become commodified, and there was no one in the space, allowing women to claim their version of themselves."

A custom brush font was created to use across the primary branding and draws its inspiration from protest posters carried in women's marches throughout history. The brush font is paired with Panamera & Bureau Grot. The overall branding and tone of voice aim to celebrate "every type of woman".

This led to &Walsh creating a library of illustrations depicting all different types of women. Throughout the branding, each illustration is paired with different lines expressing a range of moods including "super chill, super boss, super yaas, and super no." These can be used all together, or not at all. "Through typography, illustration and copywriting, the branding celebrates all types of women with the resounding theme that a SuperShe is whatever she wants to be," says Walsh.

She adds, "We wanted the fonts to be loud and strong, but also friendly and fun, the brand should overall feel inviting." The project was of particular appeal to the designer; who shares and promotes its values of community and celebrating women confidently "owning" whatever path in life. Walsh also runs her own non-profit for design industry women called Ladies, Wine & Design. Like SuperShe, the organisation is about "creating safe spaces where women can come together to support each other," says Walsh.

She adds: "Once I started gaining success in the design industry, I had many haters on social media. I began to notice that many of the haters were other women. It made me realise that sometimes women can be unsupportive of other women, and I think that's in part because our chance of reaching the top is so much slimmer than our male counterparts. It means a lot to me to collaborate with another organisation that brings women together. The more communities like this that exist, the better!"

SuperShe was launched in 2016 by millionaire consulting entrepreneur Kristina Roth, who sold her business Matisia Consultants the previous year when its revenue is reported to have been $45m.

The brand was initially a blog platform that focused on publishing content relevant to the burgeoning SuperShe community, which Roth has said comprised "financially and emotionally independent women that strive to be the best version of themselves." In September 2017 she bought the 8.47-acre island as a physical space for this community, which is open only to those who identify as female.