Penguin Point Brand
Branding
An Identity for a New Type of Immersive Exhibit.
In 2009, the National Aviary kicked off a major renovation and expansion of their facility with the development of the first-ever immersive experience. They wanted to brand it in a way that spoke to the type of experience it is as well as educationally informed to the conservation efforts they supported.
Challenges
My agency was invited in to view first-hand the construction of the project and the vision to incorporate into foundational ideas. The exhibit was going to be mostly rocks with sparse greenery, a swimming area, and a view-tube where children could crawl into the center of the exhibit for a closer look.
Myself and another designer incorporated all of these elements into an array of options. From the initial designs, the direction moved to support their native habitat and pull in elements that gave it a more ‘African’ feel. I explored elements of african art and design that eventually let to a representation of penguins that had a more tribal feel.
Solution
Fitting into the Full Aviary Family.
There were a few logos for programs and exhibits that were already completed as part of the renovation, and I wanted to make sure that the final design created a feeling of a family, with all of the logos looking like they were related. I was able to achieve this by mimicking the same overall shape of a rounded top and flat bottom.
Once sponsorship by the Tribune Review was secured, the logo was adjusted to make this the focus and thereby dropping National Aviary out of the name.
Application
Promoting the New Exhibit.
National Aviary members and donors got a special preview of the exhibit at a groundbreaking event. Since the exhibit and expansion hadn't been publicized much, we decided to go with a 'top secret' James Bond-esque theme.
When the exhibit open to the public, there was a lot of media attention around it since it was the first of it’s kind, so we leveraged this to simplify the marketing message. By pulling the same fonts and colors we were able to strengthen the new brand while reminding people that they can see the new colony of penguins.
The Aviary installed a camera where people could view a live-feed of the penguins in the exhibit. I created a landing page to embed this live feed while providing more information and an opportunity to convert visitors if they arrived at the page organically.
The National Aviary, located in Pittsburgh, is the only independent indoor nonprofit aviary in the United States. It is home to more than 500 birds of more than 150 species, many of which are threatened or endangered in the wild. It has one of the most diverse collections in North America
ClientNational AviaryServicesBrand | DesignYear2007
