Greening Embassy Initiative Branding

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Branding campaign
for a greening initiative Project

Client: Global Affairs Canada - Embassy of Canada in Bern, Switzerland

Year: 2019 - to present (on going initiative)

Scope of the project: Canada and Switzerland are strongly committed to environmental sustainability. As a greening initiative, the Embassy of Bern formed a network - Greening Embassies Network of Bern - comprised of embassies from Belgium, Germany, Netherlands, Canada, Sweden, US and Great Britain to promote environmentally friendly solutions among diplomatic representations abroad. In order to host events and share their vision they required a branding identity that could be used on various promotional items.

Deliverables:

A complete logo branding guide

Press-ready roll-up banners

Mock-ups of promotional item examples

Logo Brand Identity

As the principal designer on the project, I coordinated with the project manager and embassy clients from Bern to determine their vision on the greening initiative project. They required a visual identifier that was bilingual (English and French) with a tagline - Small Changes For A Big Difference. Their keywords were fresh, green and minimalist.

Constraints: Given this was created through Global Affairs Canada, certain governmental visual guidelines needed to be adhered to such as having the Canada wordmark on official documents like letterheads, banners and roll-ups. In addition, the client would receive the final working files to use for designing future promotional items and so making sure the branding guide was clear and concise was essential.

Design process

My intentions behind the branding design was to emulate the organic shapes of nature like greenery and the free flowing motion of water droplets or wheels on a bicycle (eco friendly). I did this by incorporating free hand drawings — using a rough vector brush — and created the leaf, which is the main visual identifier in the logo and rough circle shapes, which are incorporated as secondary visual elements. Given, the logo was to be used in multiple formats and materials, I opted out of a heavy image-based design and went for a simplistic approach, focusing on colour, typography and illustrative elements. The font choice was chosen for it’s playful side, as it can incite engagement and reflect the community aspect of the project. Lastly, the vibrant green colour brings together all the elements and encompasses the main narrative of greening initiatives (quite literally).

Software used: Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop and Indesign

🌱 #GreeningEmbassiesofBern 🌱

Social Media Presence

Since my departure from Global Affairs, I am happy to see the branding continue it’s presence and engagement throughout the Embassy network. It’s been used for various local events, initiatives and symposiums.

June 21: World Bicycle Day

“On the occasion of World Bicycle Day on 3rd of June 2021, the Greening Embassies Network, the EU Delegation and the International Bern Welcome Desk organised an event to promote the environmental and health benefits of cycling, and to encourage smart mobility among the diplomatic and local communities.”

— International Bern Welcome Desk