Creating a brand to save nature, together.

What greater purpose than to put my brand expertise towards saving the planet. No pressure!

I had been saying how much I’d love to work on a conservation brand for quite some time, so was delighted when Jonny Wright, Senior Communications and Fundraising Director at Fauna & Flora International, knocked on my door.

Established over a century ago, Fauna & Flora is the world’s oldest nature conservation charity. The charity has a successful track record of innovative and renowned conservation programmes, many of which are cited as best practice through their use of local partnerships.

Sir David Attenborough has been the charity’s vice president since 1979 and the Prince of Wales is the current patron; both share a passion for protecting the natural environment for future generations.

Whilst well-known and respected amongst conservation professionals and philanthropists, the charity wanted to inspire public support as more people wake up to the enormity of the planet’s environmental crisis.

We followed a brand development process based on sector best practice, with a brand steering group contributing to each stage, before each board meeting.

Three concepts were created following collaborative brand workshops, Biodiversity Champions (For life on earth), Global Team (Local conservation action) and Nature’s Heroes (Together for nature). The concepts were researched via qualitative and quantitative with the charity’s core audiences and markets around the world.

The research led us to the brand personality of Nature’s Champions, a global team saving nature together, with hope and a can-do spirit. This brand positioning looks to buck the trend for shock-tactics and the doom and gloom messaging of environmental issues.

Fauna & Flora are pioneers of putting conservation in local hands, so it was important to highlight how the charity supports, sustains and strengthens nature conservation action around the world. Working closely alongside local partners to save nature together and using their collective expertise to inspire positive change globally.

A new shared purpose to ‘protect the diversity of life on Earth, for the survival of the planet and its people’, summarised by the strapline “saving nature together”, accompanies the shortened name Fauna & Flora.

Brand Strategist, Dan Dufour said: “The brand strategy highlights the importance of saving nature, right now, and how this can be achieved by putting people and partnership at the heart of the solution. Whilst it was important to add more urgency to the brand story, this had to be carefully balanced with a focus on achieving equality, diversity and inclusion.”

Following a competitive selection process, Studio Texture were appointed to bring the brand strategy to life creatively, with a new visual identity that captures the fragility and power of the natural world.

The new logo is an ampersand made from nature, featuring a leaf, a foot and even a tail. It represents the close collaboration with local partners, which is at the heart of the charity’s conservation work. Chameleon?in nature, the logo can adapt to take on different backgrounds and patterns inspired by the diversity of life on earth.

The logotype is set in serif font At Gambit Bold and paired with sans serif font Beausite Classic for body copy, blending the charity’s rich heritage with a more contemporary feel.

The colour palette is also inspired by life on earth, of course, including shades called Ocean, Forest and Sunset, to name just a few.

Photography shows local people in action as well as celebrating the diversity of wildlife and nature.

A new tone of voice is more active and accessible, placing the ampersand at the heart of creative headlines to highlight the biodiversity crisis and the need for collective action. Research showed that whilst ‘biodiversity’ is becoming more mainstream, many public audiences didn’t know what the term or name meant. So it was important to add more accessible language.

Creative Director Stuart Youngs said: “Partnership is critical if we are to navigate our way through and out of the climate crisis. With this notion at its core, the identity places the ampersand within the name right at the heart of the design system”.

The logo brings elements of fauna and flora together in a distinct way, this idea then carries across the visual and verbal identity of the brand. Its simplicity gives enormous flexibility to communicate with clarity and cohesion.”

?Jonny Wright, Senior Communications & Fundraising Director, Fauna & Flora, said: “Dan combined his love and energy for brands with his passion for the natural world when approaching the work to transform the Fauna & Flora brand. He is able to hold both respect and consideration of the organisation’s history alongside a determination to drive forward, be bold and dare to be different. He brought a wealth of charity brand experience to his work, while fully immersing himself in who we are as an organisation and what makes us different. Our brand feels very safe in Dan’s hands.”

The new brand launched at RHS Chelsea Flower Show and will be rolled out throughout the year, with a new website to follow. Fauna & Flora’s show garden, designed by Jilayne Rickards, and relocated to the Eden Project in Cornwall focuses on ecotourism and takes the visitor on a gorilla trek, tracing a track through lush and changing landscapes, passing banana trees to a gorilla nest set amongst bamboo.?