Blue Nature Aotearoa
Project
Developing a logo, branding guidelines and suggestions along with a website shell for an education and environmental trust with a focus on coastal revitalisation.
Communicate the concept of partnership, technology, and Nature.
The trust is essentially bringing together educators, technologists, and scientists and will also partner with programs running in Kura and with Iwi on projects.
Outcome
Blue Nature officially launched in July 2024 in Auckland, Aotearoa (New Zealand). At the launch the logo and branding were prominent, visually conveying the trust’s ideals.
The raw logo and branding development files were made available to the trust for education purposes.
Blue Nature’s current web site is an updated version of the shell that was provided and nicely portrays the purpose and values of the trust.
Logo Development
The client wished for a logo that would convey the concepts of partnership, technology and nature.
Having the logo tie to New Zealand was also important to the client as they wish for the trust to opperate internationally in the future.
Creating a Meaningful logo
After reaching a clear understanding of the client’s vision, the layers, shapes and colours of the New Zealand Paua were used as a source of inspiration.
The inside of a Paua shell is rippled with iridescent layers of blues and purples. These waves and ripples really helped focus the logo design.
Two Rounds
There were two rounds of logo development but in the end, one of the first logos was chosen to represent the trust.
The bottom development stages incorporate accessibility colour considerations whilst in branding development.
Final logo
The final logo was a modified version of an early logo that the client felt met their needs.
The logo consists of sharp, clean lines of technology whilst being wrapped in spiralling circles of togetherness. The circles all share the same starting point.
The spiral is also representative of the Koru motif, an unfurling fern, which bears the meaning of growth, education, strength, and peace.
Branding Development
The client had very particular elements in mind that they wished to incorporate into the logo. Colour was one of these, being black, teal, and white.
The introduction of purple was a later consideration for the logo alone.
The website and other collateral would have a limited colour palette for consistency and coherence.
Typography was important to the client and needed to be a dyslexic-friendly typeface.
Accessibility was also a major consideration. Colour contrasts and typography needed to meet AAA ratings as much as possible.
Colour testing
Testing how each colour would interact with one another was important with such a limited palette.
Achieving a high accessibility contrast rating was very important, and some slight compromises on the teal colour had to be made.
Typograpghy
Multiple typefaces were explored and tested in situ with the logo and as body copy for the website.
The typography had to meet accessibility standards and cater especially well for dyslexia.
The typeface SF Pro meets these requirements and offers a large family of weights. the typeface is also very mobile-friendly and will work across multiple viewports.
Web site
bluenature.co.nz