The Open Wings Project is a research project dedicated to discovering the “Tree of Life” of birds or sorting traces of over 10,000 known birds species. Open Wing's primary goals are to combine existing museum tissue resources with cutting-edge gene techniques, and their secondary goal is to release data to the public for use in other research projects. The project is led by scientists at LSU and works with other groups such as the Smithsonian and the Natural History Museum. They would like to have a brand that expresses the idea of their “Tree of Life” of birds and appeals to both the public and scientific communities of different fields. They would like the brand to be presented in a friendly, “non-technical” way while still being scientifically correct. 

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BRANDING:

Our goal with the visual branding was to create something accessible and friendly yet presentable to fellow researchers. The logo is a simple shape, made from a leaf or feather form, rearranged. The converging lines are reminiscent of a family tree, tying in the concept of the tree of life. The colors are bright and fresh, based on exotic birds (a black and white version of the logo is also attached for more corporate correspondence). The typeface we chose is Neutra Text, a modern and versatile sans-serif. It is legible in many places, from body text to headlines to the web. Overall, the brand reads as fresh and respectable, yet eye-catching for public engagement.

EMAIL:

We designed two email banners to go along with the branding. The first one could be sent in public emails after someone would subscribe to the blog or a newsletter with any project updates. The second banner could be used at the top or bottom of any general correspondence emails. We thought this design was clean enough to be used in a professional setting and engaging sufficient to add some life to any public response.

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