Case Study
Stanley Park Ecology
We helped Stanley Park Ecology simplify its name and develop a more expressive identity, bringing its work into a visual world people could recognize, share, and wear.
We started by taking one word away.
Stanley Park Ecology Society had a name that described an organization. Removing “Society” brought the focus more directly onto the place and the work. Stanley Park Ecology was simpler to say, easier to carry into a design, and open to a broader expression of what the organization could be.
That small change gave us a useful opening. We were working with people who cared deeply about the park: staff, volunteers, and a wider community connected to its ecology. We wanted the brand to make more of that interest and energy visible.
The shorter name appears on the organization’s installed sign, surrounded by the park it belongs to.
We wanted an identity people might actually wear.
The visual direction moved away from a primarily academic feeling toward something more expressive and artful. We developed distinctive lettering and a graphic world that could feel at home on a shirt or tote as readily as on an organizational communication. The name itself could become something people enjoyed looking at.
The refined identity welcomes viewers to journey closer to their roots.
That gave the work a different kind of presence. It could carry knowledge and invite curiosity, while making room for the pleasure of being interested in the natural world. There is plenty of seriousness in ecology. There is also an excellent case for a good tote bag.
Distinctive lettering and a flowing blue graphic treatment give the identity an everyday life beyond formal communications.
The system had to make different kinds of work feel connected.
We carried the identity into signage and digital applications, developing a range that could hold photographs, messages, and invitations into the organization’s work. The palette and graphic treatments could create variety while the lettering kept a recognizable thread running through it.
Photography, graphic pattern, and colour bring different invitations into a recognizable social sequence.
The identity can take a quieter, more typographic form when the message needs room.
The team at Stanley Park Ecology described a practical difference in the finished work: “the brand is clearly differentiated from Vancouver Park Board and unique to Stanley Park.” The organization had a more distinct presence in the place it knew so well. We like how directly that recognition connects to the design: a clearer name, lettering with character, and new ways to meet someone on a sign, a screen, or a very useful bag.
