Keeping Forests

OBJECTIVE

Keeping Forests is a coalition of landowners, conservationists, corporations and organizations work to ensure forests remain for generations to come. Per the brief, our objective was, “To create a credible and compelling identity for Keeping Forests as Forests in order to build momentum for the cause and facilitate a substantial connection with our partners.”

INSIGHTS

Having read Keeping Forests’ five-year strategic plan cover to cover, I was able to discover themes of connection, balance, future generations, etc. However, one theme emerged above the others—a theme of unlikely partnership.

INSIGHTS CONTINUED

Throughout the strategic plan, Keeping Forests defines the path to success as a collaboration between organizations that may typically be at odds with one another. This overlap of juxtaposing organizations became central to my concept for the identity.

These unlikely partnerships were not the only instance of juxtaposing and intersecting ideas. I found that Keeping Forests is built on an inclusive and wide-ranging set of ideals. These ideals, while often opposite, find common ground under this organization’s mission.

LOGO SYSTEM

The logo was created using woodblock, dry ink, and dust textures to produce an authentic print look. One of the inconsistencies with woodblock printing is saturation of the final image. This varies due to the amount of ink used, the ink coverage on the block, and the amount of pressure used to make the print.

While to some this inconsistency could seem like a flaw, I found a true authenticity in the approach. The logo variations can be used at random, allowing the logo to always feel authentically created/printed.

COLOR

From the beginning of the process, I knew that I wanted to implement a dynamic color system. Given the wide breadth of materials, the organization will produce, this approach provides flexibility from application to application.

In addition to the breadth of color, I wanted the palette to aid in the delivery of content for all communications. For this reason, I’ve assigned each of the colors to one of the six committees that is outlined in the strategic planning document, with the exception of red—the primary brand color.

TYPOGRAPHY

My typography approach aimed to echo the sentiments spelled out in the project brief. The primary typeface, Miller Text, is a traditional and sophisticated serif. It speaks the professionalism and wise tonalities the brand aims to imbue.

The sans serif, Maison Neue, is represented in both its typical sans serif form as well as its monospaced variation. This typeface is representative of the brand’s clear and pragmatic tonality.

Together, the typefaces are eclectic and dynamic, echoing the variety and cohesion of the organization’s partners.

ICONOGRAPHY

The centerpiece of this identity system is the icon set. The icons are all depictions of different themes surrounding the Keeping Forests brand and are ultimately meant to be paired with contextual copy. The icons depicted represent navigation, forests, and sustainability, with more being created if approved.

The style of the icon set is similar to the approach of the logo—geometric and bold, with aspects of overlap that echo the Venn diagram concept.

Lastly, the icon set is taken a step further to include the 13 states represented by Keeping Forests. These state icons allow the brand to customize materials specific to a geographic region.

ACTIVATIONS

The activations bring everything together, working in unison. These applications of the brand identity system demonstrate the flexibility and modularity, not only of the logo, but also of the color palette, icon system, and typographic approach.

THE FINAL SOLUTION

The previous concept was one of four identity systems presented to Keeping Forests as Forests. For this particular scope of work, we produced nearly ten concepts prior to finalizing the four systems we presented.

The following work was from another concept I had crafted. It was presented alongside the previous work and ultimately chosen as the final solution.