Fazia Khan is the Creative Director and co-founder of Made With, part of the Wilful taskforce.
Our brief was as follows:
– the name Wilful, with its connotations of purpose, energy, disruption and humanity
– the positioning: a comms task force helping usher in the regenerative economy
We discussed the brief and ambition with the founders and held a workshop with the broader team. We also reviewed how others were presenting themselves in the sustainability & purpose space. We found a lot of what was out there hackneyed and predictable: surely this exciting new phase of the green and just economy should come with a new look and tone, just like the digital pioneers twenty years before? So we agreed to give it all a fresh twist.
The creative idea that resonated with the team was one of BIOMIMICRY. Some of early creative ideas including looking through the lens of: WHAT WOULD NATURE DO? We also wanted to communicate the hustle, bustle and sheer personality of our Wilful collective. So we hit on the tagline: WILFUL BY NAME, WILFUL BY NATURE.
And then, our talented graphic designer Anterleena Maiti spun this into a thought-provoking series of banners that show how the principles of the regenerative economy have correlates in nature. People, organisations and whole economies are after all just part of earth’s natural ecosystems. The very things that help ecosystems thrive – cooperation, regeneration, circular loops, exponential growth, inclusivity – are also at the heart of the regenerative economy so well described by John Elkington (founder of Volans, author “Green Swans”) and many others.
Visually we developed the WILFUL logo to be modern and involving. With a moving version that is playful and conveys urgency (with an “I” that becomes a “!”). We rejected the tired design cliches of greenwash and took inspiration from 21st century life science as exemplified by Welcome Foundation exhibitions, Pharma inspired Art, Genetics and Infographics… peppered with facts and discoveries from nature.
The colours, typography and graphics reflect the visual culture of what some are calling “the century of life science”. But they also wouldn’t look out of place on a magazine cover or fashion editorial. After all the Regenerative Economy is home to superbrands of the future – with brands like Impossible Foods, Tesla, Oatley, Patagonia, VEJA already showing that conscious doesn’t have to mean crunchy!
