EnviroEducation is a UK-based environmental education group on a mission to protect the world's environment by empowering people to work effectively with current conservation and environmental practices. Their vision is for a more sustainable future fuelled by education.
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EnviroEducation engaged Purple Banana as their creative partner to bring their organisation and vision to life through a bold new brand identity and undertake the design and development of a new website.
Set up during the pandemic, COVID-19 resulted in a shift of both thinking and method for EnviroEducation totally rethinking how they delivered their services and the way in which they wanted to be presented to their audience visually.
Although marketed to teachers, parents and adults the programme itself was designed for children and young people. We developed a brand that would appeal to the younger audience, led by the design of the main logo featuring 'Bingo' the owl. The logo typeface was designed using Grenadine MVB, its non-linear playful style making it fun and engaging.
Utilising natural, planet-inspired colours was the focus when designing the brand's core palette. The brand was assigned a primary green, or 'grass', swatch alongside seven other swatches. Featuring colours from earth's natural elements each colour was named after its inspiration. The bold palette provided a degree of vibrancy to both digital and print assets.
In addition to the colour palette, we developed a system of graphic shapes derived from the non-linear structure of the logo. These skewed rectangle shapes were used to strategically highlight quotes, information and headings across the new website and resources, and provided a level of visual contrast to the more legible body copy font family, Sofia Pro.
The development of the brand during the pandemic meant commissioning bespoke imagery wasn't possible. To provide a temporary solution, we worked with a specific collaborator on Unsplash, utilising their imagery as the go-to library for EnviroEducation. Maintaining a library from just one collaborator ensured visual consistency across the brand.
The EnviroEducation team had multiple goals for the new website. Whilst serving as a point of information for adults, teachers and parents seeking resources around environmental education, they also wanted it to serve as a tool for empowering and celebrating young people making a difference in their local environment. To achieve this, we designed a 'Young Leaders' showcase page that provided information on young people's environmental missions.
Flexibility was a core aspect of the brief for the new website. EnviroEducation wanted the ability to make regular changes to the content of the site without the need to rely heavily on an agency to facilitate this. To ensure this, Webflow was used as a CMS of choice.
The programme resources are at the heart of the EnviroEducation offer. Designed to be used by all generations, the initial workbook needed to be created in a way that was visually appealing and accessible to all ages. Using the colour palette, design system and iconography from the new brand identity we produced an inspiring handbook that can be used by all.
Accessibility throughout the handbook was crucial given the breadth of age ranges using it. To keep navigation clear and consistent, we introduced:
- Page numbers within contrasting colours for visibility
- Assigning each challenge group a unique colour
- Producing 'EnviroTouchstones' to indicate what individuals skills can be developed on each task
- Instructional 'breadcrumbs' on the pages to direct readers to other relevant information
Read what the EnviroEducation team thought about working with us.
“The team at Purple Banana did an amazing job of creating the new brand identity and website for Enviro Education website. We were all delighted with the way they produced exactly what we imagined - a website, and resource library that captured our youth-focussed mission. They worked brilliantly - listening to our goals, and putting together a top quality, well designed product. Thank you team Purple Banana !”
Susie Raimes
project co-ordinator
