Typophile

Pollution Prevention at Sea

AndrewSipe

I'm currently working on a small project for 2 Navy programs... WRAPS (Waste Reduction Afloat Protects the Sea) and PRIME (Plastic Removal in the Marine Environment). They're both preventative programs to lessen the impact of harmful pollutants that are leached into the oceans from naval ships.

WRAPS has created recycling programs that limit the levels of caustic waste while a ship is deployed. Usually the final waste is mostly biological (food remnants) that get processed into small pucks.

PRIME is another recycling program that focuses directly on any and all plastic products that are used on deployed naval ships.

They're hoping to expand the impact of their programs on a more broad sector, and possibly even breach into the commercial shipping companies.

I've been asked to create some marketing material. We're starting small. I've created some simplified logos and have been asked to come up with tag lines and other collateral. I'm kinda stuck on ideas and was wondering if anyone might have a thought or two they'd like to share.

I'll post what I currently have as far as the proposed logos, that will probably be used on the marketing swag they'll hand out at trade shows and stuff. At the very bottom of the PDF are the original logos (circular ones.) and approved colors I can use.

I'm also in charge of making a pocket folder and handouts. An idea I had was to create an ocean scene, either from scratch or use a photograph, and then place silhouetted images of fish and underwater wildlife, to signify the lose of these creature if pollution prevention measures aren't taken further.

My creativity bone is broken and I could use some fresh ideas.

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WRAPSPRIME2a.pdf443.68 KB

This is for the Navy? If so, you're WAY off base. Didn't you read US Logo Specifications section 28 paragraph 3 clauses 1 - 4?

1) All logos must be round. Like a seal. It looks important.
2) All logos must incorporate at least 7 unique literal objects into the mark.
3) Issues of reproduction should be ignored. We know we can't realistically put these behemoths on a banner on a web site, but we don't care. We're the government.
4) Make sure it uses at least 9 colors. We like color.

I'm afraid I have no other advice than to start over. These are simply way too nice for government logos.

(Can you tell I have a .gov job?)

Yeah, I can't stand any of the government logos I have to use, except the DOD logo, that's actually pretty nice.

Lucky for me, I've been able to come up with stuff outside of the "US Logo Specs" guidelines because most of our projects are trying to pick up outside consultants and possible commercial users. I don't even know if I could design a ridge circular logo if asked.

What's really sticking out here is that you're combining the logos and taglines, in this case I think that's just too much text. Why not just work up logos and worry about ways to integrate them with taglines later?

The programs run simultaneously together and the client asked for the name grouping. However, the tag line can be separate that's not much of an issue.

What I'm really having difficulty with is coming up with a visual theme that works well to promote both the beauty of the oceans and the impact of these environmentally friendly programs. My client wants lots of color, so I thought of exploring the beauty of the sea and all the brightly colored wildlife. I'm having trouble finding decent images too.

The ideas should just start flowing, but I've been stuck on this for a while now and my client would like to see some things soon.

If you really need to bring the oceans across, get away from all the hard lines. Try combining wavy forms with a supple contemporary serif as opposed to all those hard edges and old style type.

If you really want some ideas, try flipping through some National Geographic underwater stuff. Today I went to their annual photography contest exhibition, and some of those photos just blew my mind—I'll be pulling material from it all semester, and if they did a book for it I'd be doing so for a good decade.

Not a bad idea visiting National Geographic... I don't have any of their magazines, but I'll peruse their website for some inspiration. I'll play around with the wave idea as well.

I hit up Borders after work, surprised to find No underwater photography anywhere... very disappointing.

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