Building Upon a Rich Conservation Legacy, Looking into the Future
Openlands is the grandmother of the conservation organizations in the Midwest, and it was time to update its branding and message. We worked with the Openlands communications team and board to uncover and organize their diverse ideas of what the organization is known for and what it should be known for in the future. Our work with Openands spanned branding and messaging, and we began with codifying their differentiated values, beliefs, and personality, drawing on its long history and combining that with their vision for their future.
Brand Research & Strategy
Through our quantitative and qualitative research, we discovered how different audience groups perceived Openlands differently and were unaware of programs and projects outside their experience. With the team, we united their message and expanded their reach to new audiences, bringing new information to existing ones.
Identity Design & Messaging
The visual identity builds upon Openland’s past identity: a drawing of a large Oak Tree. We modernized it, made it a web-ready symbol, and created the new tree-based mark into marks that could be used as backgrounds, accents, or alone. Openlands’ new color palette reflects nature’s expansive color palette — not only the greens and blues we’re used to seeing in conservation organizations — colors that reflect the variety of native plants unique to the Midwest.
