Paula Scher dotted a non-profit's name with red periods to fight the tampon tax

The US-based non-profit campaigns to repeal the sales tax on tampons and other period products, which made them more expensive than exempted essentials, and needed an identity to carry the case to lawmakers.

Spot the black logotype with red periods — punctuation as product — with the name set to flip to 'Equity, Period' once the tax falls.

Paula Scher created a sans-serif black logotype in Margaret Calvert's New Rail Alphabet, spotted with red dots to 'pull no punches' about the uncomfortable subject; former Pentagram partner Lisa Strausfeld began designing a website slated to launch in early 2017.

The group's online petition had passed 63,000 signatures, and tampon tax had been scrapped in Connecticut, Illinois and New York earlier in 2016; Scher hoped the identity would give the campaign greater visibility with lawmakers. Americans had spent $3.1bn on tampons and feminine hygiene products in 2015, per Euromonitor.

In December 2016, Design Week reported that Pentagram partner Paula Scher had created the visual identity for Period Equity, a US-based non-profit campaigning to repeal the sales tax on tampons and other period products — items taxed as 'luxuries' while essentials like toilet paper, food and medication were exempt.

Scher renamed the organisation from Menstrual Equality to Period Equity, setting a sans-serif black logotype in Margaret Calvert's New Rail Alphabet and spotting it with red dots to, in her words, pull no punches about the uncomfortable subject of periods. She also revealed the identity's built-in endgame: once the group achieved its goal of eliminating tampon tax throughout the US, the name would change to 'Equity, Period'.

The campaign already had runs on the board: an online petition organised by Period Equity had reached more than 63,000 signatures, after which tampon tax was scrapped in Connecticut, Illinois and New York earlier in 2016. Former Pentagram partner Lisa Strausfeld was designing a new website for the organisation, due to launch in early 2017.

The stakes were sizable: Euromonitor found American consumers spent $3.1bn on tampons and other feminine hygiene products in 2015, and Pentagram said individual women in the US spent up to $70 a year on menstrual products. Scher hoped the identity would give Period Equity greater visibility to keep approaching lawmakers, raise awareness and undo stigma around the issue.

The identity turns the object of the taboo — the period — into the logo itself, refusing the euphemism most brands in the category still reach for.

The name encodes the campaign's goal and its after: Period Equity becomes Equity, Period the day the tax dies.

A pro-bono top-tier identity gave a small advocacy group the visual authority to walk into state legislature fights.

A campaign name can contain its own victory condition — build the endgame ('Equity, Period') into the identity so success completes the wordplay instead of retiring it.

A website designed by Lisa Strausfeld was slated to launch in early 2017; Design Week reported the three state wins and 63,000-signature petition as the campaign's standing at the end of 2016.