Superfried Brands Wildlife Funds for the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation

By Editor March 28, 2018

Design studio Superfried has created the branding for the Shark Conservation and Elephant Crisis funds – two animal preservation projects founded by the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation (LDF) in partnership with other philanthropic organisations.

Based in L.A., LDF was founded in 1998 by the famous Hollywood actor of the same name, with the goal of safeguarding both wild animals and their habitats.

The charity recently launched three separate funds to protect lions, sharks, and elephants, with the identity for the first said to have already been in place.

“Having worked with Superfried before, they approached me to develop the identity for the remaining two,” explains Mark Richardson, director at the Manchester-based studio. “The marque for the first fund featured a lion’s head formed from contour lines. They stated it was important to continue the idea of conveying both the species and their habitat for the two additional funds.”

The first design challenge was the Shark Conservation Fund, which was set-up to protect not only sharks, but also rays.

“The client requested, that if possible, the identity should simultaneously represent both species and their natural habitat,” says Mark. “With this in mind I looked for similarities in the form of both rays and sharks. Likewise to convey their habitat, waves and their fins were conveniently close in shape.”

As a result, the circular-framed logo design sees a shark swimming alongside a ray, one of whose wings also doubles as the shark’s main dorsal fin. However, to differentiate the two sea creatures from one another, the shark is set in a solid colour while the ray is defined through the use of negative space alone.

Likewise, the logo for the last of the three projects, the Elephant Crisis Fund, is also enclosed within a circle and shows both an elephant’s profile and its habitat through the use of map-inspired topographic contours. Their habitat was also conveyed via close-up shots of elephant skin proposed for potential marketing material.