Anka Emergency Play Support Product System and Visual Identity Designed by Doğa Bircan
February 25, 2026Focus2026Social & PolicyStudent Project EditorialIdentityTurkiye
A thesis project developed within the School of Visual Arts MFA Design program that positions play as post disaster infrastructure through a modular product system and integrated identity, conceived in response to the 2023 earthquake in Türkiye.
Anka is a play organization conceived to provide emergency play support for displaced children following disasters and crises. Named after Anka, the Turkish word for phoenix, the organization draws on the symbolism of renewal and rebuilding. Rather than framing play as distraction, the project proposes play as structured recovery, a tool for restoring agency, routine, and psychological stability in unstable environments.
Doğa Bircan developed her thesis in response to the February 6, 2023 earthquakes in southern Türkiye, when a magnitude 7.8 earthquake was followed hours later by a second 7.5 shock, resulting in widespread destruction and displacement. Confronted with the scale of the disaster during her MFA studies, Bircan translated that moment into a systemic design investigation, asking how graphic and product design can function as deployable support within disaster relief contexts.
The proposal integrates both identity and modular play sets designed for rapid deployment. The product system is built around adaptable components that can be assembled, disassembled, and reconfigured depending on spatial constraints and available resources. Durable materials, simplified geometries, and transportable packaging prioritize immediacy and accessibility. The play kits are conceived as expandable units that evolve through interaction, reinforcing the regenerative concept embedded in the name.
The visual identity mirrors this structural logic. Built on modular graphic elements, scalable typographic structures, and flexible color relationships, the system maintains a balance between approachability and resilience. Visual components expand, contract, and reorganize across applications, reflecting the adaptability of the physical kits. The identity avoids sentimentality and instead emphasizes clarity, legibility, and functional deployment across emergency communication, kit packaging, and spatial environments.
As both product thesis and identity thesis , Anka situates design within humanitarian systems thinking. It proposes that play, structure, and visual language can operate collectively as tools for resilience, demonstrating how design can extend beyond representation to become active infrastructure in moments of crisis.