Seattle Audubon Society
The Project
The Seattle Audubon Society is a local nonprofit whose goal is to educate the public on our local birds in and around the Seattle area. They have one small store that carries books on birds, informational pamphlets, and birding supplies like spotting scopes. Everyone involved with this non-profit is extremely passionate about and educated on our avian friends. Even though they they’re quite successful in raising funds their current design and website get in the way of them reaching a wider audience.
In Full Collaboration With - Cameron Fletcher
Timeline
Twelve weeks
Roles
Illustrator
Visual Designer
Motion Designer
Skills
Research
Branding
Layout
Typography
Motion Graphics
Tools
Adobe Indesign
Adobe Photoshop
Adobe Illustrator
Adobe After Effects
Adobe Premier Pro
Figma
Brand Development
A Birds Eye View
This project starts of with my team and I collecting images. Images we believe encompass the look, feel, and ideas of the Seattle Audubon Society. Textures, images, people, places, objects all pertaining to the idea of this company were filtered through and vetted narrowing the focus of this projects.
After sifting through those we then went through each image collecting verbage. after that process we narrowed those potential attributes even further into words we felt defined the company and what they stand for. with these we went out and created four things: the brand pillars, promise, positioning, and mission.
Brand Promise
We believe that by advocating for birds and their habitats, we are also advocating for ourselves and our city. Seattle Audubon Society provides quality educational programming and birding events for all ages, and our Nature Shop offers tools and resources for every level of bird enthusiast. We foster a friendly, communal atmosphere for volunteers and patrons alike. Join us in appreciating and learning about Seattle’s birds, and together we can change our world for the better.
Brand Positioning
For people interested in birds and the environment, Seattle Audubon Society is Washington’s largest community of birdewrs, offering resources and tools, citizen science opportunities, and educational programming for all ages.
Logo
He’s an Odd Bird
This here is Rupert! He’s a double crested cormorant and the Seattle chapter of the Audubon Society’s bird of choice! Using your chapters bird in the logo lockup is pretty standard when it comes to Audubon society design, but their design is becoming increasingly dated and is getting in the way of them expanding their audience to a younger demographic.
We pulled the simple round forms and shapes created with negative space from our mood board to reimagine this bird. Rupert is a friendlier, more youthful, and educated bird; a bird of the future! With the badge logo and the full Rupert illustration (below) we also got a lot of fun shaper we could later use in the print media, but we’ll get to that later!
And Your Bird Can Sing
We had already created our bird friend with a lot of character but animating Rupert really brought the logo to life. The little flick of the feathers at the end brings some lightness and whimsy to the character that I loved as soon as I saw it. This animation acts as a loading screen for the website and appear in social media content, advertising, and fundraising campaigns.
Print Material
When creating products for a nonprofit, designing a dynamic system that’s also budget friendly is critical. We achieved this through the use of single color prints that you can find in any of the brand colors. Everything is plug-and-play. Insert your name, pick a color, and we’re good to go!
Bold modular type is paired with bits of Rupert across all of the print media creating a cohesive theme carrying a bright and fun attitude with just the tiniest bit of quirky hiding in there. Despite that big, bold type all of the copy created was designed to feel human as this is a volunteer supported, community based program.
