ECOLOGY AWARENESS CHARITY CAMPAIGN
Final Major Project
As this was the final project of the course, it was a self-initiated brief. So, I had freedom to explore something I hadn't done before. My initial idea was to create an awareness campaign based on ecology. However, as the project progressed, I decided to change my idea and create an ecological charity that tackles issues like deforestation and wildfires to help the tree populations. This would be carried out through both handmade and digital design.
I wanted to create awareness by producing different types of content that aims to educate and inform the public about the current problems that are affecting the ecology today. I created a website which allows the public to create awareness together and act on this issue by attending local charity events that can be found on the website.
My role was to create a charity that focused on ecology. By looking at the brand identity alone, people should get the idea that this had something to do with nature and ecology. Because this was the Final Major Project, focus was more on creating a feel for the audience as I had to keep in mind what my target audience would think about each decision I made for this project. For example, the colour scheme for the project was a huge part of the project as I had to ensure that the public get the feeling of an ecological charity.
The biggest problem that I faced was creating a brand identity for this charity. I had to make sure that when people look at the logo, they were looking at something that identifies as a charity, and at the same time represents ecology. Because of this, during the research phase of the project, I was looking at the different charities that already exist and analysing their brand identities which then helped me shape my brand identity for ReForest.
manipulated typeface
raised and lowered syllables
tree of life instead of the letter 'O'
green and brown to represent growth of nature
One of my main goals was to create a feeling that the target audience can relate to when they think about wanting to take action and I wanted to create a platform for that audience, this meant that I had to think like the reader and this way I could meet their expectation. To start with, I researched the different impacts that affect the trees around the world; deforestation and wildfires were the most common cases of tree damage. This meant that I had found the causes and now had to come up with some solutions to prevent these to create a real feeling for the charity. For my charity, I came up with initiatives that could help prevent further tree damage and habitat loss.
To learn how to create a charity, it was imperative that I research about other competitive charities working toward the same cause and that is what I did next. Checking the social media presence of the existing charities was an ideal thing to do as it gave me an idea of what content to post on the website that I was making.
Because I wanted to create an advertising campaign to create exposure, I had to first look at other advertising campaigns that existed around the world that had been published by other charities. I analysed the content on each of the posters and looked carefully at what makes an advert campaign successful.
The next step was to start working on the logo design and the brand identity of the charity. I started by listing some names that came to mind that relate back to the cause of this charity. One of the my personal favourites was 'reforest'. This name encapsulated what my charity was about and the meaning behind it was to grow trees. I also sketched some ideas for the logo and how that would look like during the initial phase.
The next step was to come up with an advertising campaign. My goal with this was to create exposure for the charity and to create a sense of urgency for the public that would allow them to take positive action that could have a positive impact for ecology around the world. The one idea I had in mind at the time was to create a set of illustrated metaphor posters that could ultimately be displayed in the public eye.
Because various charities have initiatives, I wanted to create my own initiative where the person could order a tree growing kit from my the website and it allows them to grow a tree wherever they need, whether that be at home or a community garden. I came up with the idea by looking at the initiative that was started by 'The Million Gardens Movement' charity where they do a similar thing. I came up with a mailing box design for packaging and inside the box would be the items one would need to grow their own tree. All these items would also be sustainable and environmentally friendly. Below are the designs for the items and the physical items that were put on display at an exhibition recently.
information leaflet
compostable bag with tree roots
information leaflet
bio-degradable plant pot
packaging box
clay water bottle
Another piece of content I made were a set of animations, these were only for informative and educational purposes that would be put on the website. Each animation would serve as a part of a short story with captions underneath the animations to tell the story. The animations were created on Adobe AfterEffects.
The final results of this project were pretty good, I was able to not only produce designs and mock-ups, but I was also able to produce physical prototypes and one example of this was the tree growing kit. I believe that I created a successful prototype of a charity which helps the local communities take action against the threats that ecology faces in today's world. I was excited throughout the project as I kept coming up with new ways to improve a certain idea. At the end of the project, there was an exhibition show that was carried out so that the students can get a chance to show off their work from the latest project. The images below show how the myself and my project booth.
