In many ways, launching any new website is the start of the project, not the end. Websites are never really finished. Once you hit publish, you're committed; it's out there for all the world to see, so you need to ensure you nurture and look after it. 

With that logic, this is the start of my project with the International Electric Marine Association (IEMA). More importantly, it's a good excuse to shamelessly plug what I have been up to for the last few months.

I have been working with IEMA since the end of 2023, and my strategy was to build a bold, colorful, and artistic visual brand and hone the messaging and voice of this ambitious industry-backed nonprofit.

I approached the work like an editorial project (hardly surprising after working with Vox Media for over seven years) as I think of IEMA as a media brand — come to think of it, I regard most brands as media brands these days.

IEMA's role is to advocate for the entire electric marine industry, focusing on the macro issues and challenges, not the micro. One of the best ways for IEMA to inspire cooperation and bring together for-profit companies, municipalities, government authorities, industry associations, and philanthropic institutions to collaborate and share knowledge is through great storytelling.

The IEMA visual brand style comprises a robust, solid logo and icon design system fused with a bright, colorful, "hand-made" editorial-style visual aesthetic. I worked closely with lead designer Carolina Gonzalez Pini to build a precise design system that would allow us to use editorial-style illustrations on the website, presentations, and in future articles, social media posts, and videos. Our first explainer video, made by a talented "supergroup" of animators and videographers in Argentina, is the perfect example. I wrote, directed, and narrated the video.

Below are a few examples of the IEMA visual design brand (logo, lockup, etc.) and icons created by myself and Caro, her excellent 1980s neon-style graphics (they need Dreamkid83's synths as a backing track), and stills from the beautiful video by Nonino in Buenos Aires.