Here I describe my proposal for a branding of the 2nd World Seabird Conference although the organizing committee has decided not to update the branding of the Conference for each meeting.

The proposed logo shows a Cape gannet (a local seabird) diving into the ocean in front of Cape Town's Table Mountain. 

Since the WSC moves from continent to continent, I wanted the design to include a reminder of the traditional culture of the host country/region. I based my creative process on Bantu (Ndebele) traditional art forms which are caracterized by the use of bright colors and black lines surrounding geometrical shapes.

 

The simplified silhouette of Table Mountain overshadows a sea of polygons ranging from the warm colors of the mountain's reflection to blues and greens of the water and seaweeds. A number 2 appears in the background in a single color. The bottom of the logomark uses the Ndebele representation of the water as a series of triangles and extands below the logotype in the lock-up version.

 

I chose to represent a Cape gannet (Morus capensis), a species of seabirds which breeds only along the coast of south-west Africa. Gannets are famous for their extreme plunge dives when fishing.

The extended branding, based on gannet imagery, makes great use of the polygons as an overlay to convey information about the conference.