Elephant Crisis Fund Brand identity + illustration

The Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation, established in 1998 to protect the world’s last wild places, had worked with us on numerous successful projects – LEAF . Don't Let Them Disappear . World Oceans Day . Sharks . QRFN. So they approached design studio Superfried once again, this time to develop the brand identity for a global crisis fund set-up to protect elephants and tackle the ivory market.

In the brief they requested that if possible the brand identity should simultaneously represent both the species and their natural habitat. So image research was conducted as experimented techniques to illustrate elephants via topographic contours. Two potential design routes emerged – face on and profile. With the latter selected by the client I developed various mock-ups to ensure the marque was sufficiently versatile across all media.

During the image research for the mock-ups an additional connection between the elephants and their habitat emerged. Close-up shots of their skin bore a striking resemblance to parched landscapes within which they reside. With this realised, additional close-ups of elephant skin were sourced to be used as a backdrop for the designs of the marketing artwork.

Mock-up designs – visuals shown – were developed to ensure the new marque was sufficiently versatile to work across all media and scenarios. For promotional and fund raising video content on social media, an animated logo ident was designed and developed.