Healthy Climate Communities
Healthy Climate Communities is a Hawaii-based non-profit that leverages education and community action to fight climate change on the island of O'ahu. One way they do this is by engaging with schools, community groups, and volunteers to plant native loulu palm saplings to grow a restorative forest on the watershed of Hāmākua Marsh Wildlife Sanctuary. A new mission-sensitive logo and identity system were developed to help mature the organization’s brand and community presence.
The Logo
The logo brief only had a couple of hard requirements: it should reference the beloved, endangered local Loulu Palm—which is at the core of the organization's mission, as it regularly involves the community in planting a native forest of them.
And it should reference the people involved in the work. An optional bonus would be somehow including the much loved, endangered, and very recognizable Hawaiian Stilt bird.
The result was an expressive and symbolic logomark that tells the unique story of an organization using community involvement to help restore a native forest on a marsh, one Loulu Palm at a time. The mark was paired with Goji Display, a friendly but demanding, rounded sans-serif font.
Hāmākua-Informed Colorways
The color palette was directly inspired by Hāmākua Marsh and the organization’s nature-focused mission. It was also kept light, optimistic, and fun to reflect the feeling volunteers and students experience when out in the marsh planting palm saplings or pulling out invasive weeds to help the habitat thrive.
A Restorative Identity
A full brand guide was created to outline the new logo family, color system, and fonts. Further guidance was given on ways the Loulu palm silhouette could be used to crop photos, create patterns, and extend the brand through depth and continuity.
A Cohesive Social Media Vision
To inspire a forward looking social media strategy, we imagined how the new brand could inform an already robust and rich suite of content. Weaving beautiful photography, timely event announcements, calls to action, and educational awareness into a unified public-facing vision, we empowered the organization’s caretakers to grow their brand’s social media presence into the future.
Room to Grow
Further brand explorations were charted through physical buildouts and imaginings meant to inspire, challenge, and engage the organization’s custodians, gardeners, and community of foresters.
