A coral collaboration with SeaLegacy
This journey started when I first met Paul Nicklen and Cristina Mittermeier, founders of oceans non-profit SeaLegacy, at Paul’s gallery in SoHo. Paul and Cristina are renowned National Geographic photographers and their organization uses powerful visuals and storytelling to create legislative pushes that protect marine ecosystems and create economic loops. The SeaLegacy team has a social media following of over 6 million people, with 1.4 million followers on their Instagram alone.
After telling them about my coworker and friend, Aaron Padin, and expressing our desire to bolster their initiatives with our skill sets, they informed us of a project that could kick-off our relationship, coral regeneration in the Caribbean.
Long story short, they had partnered with famous coral scientist, Dr. David Vaughan, and Reef Life Restoration, an organization pioneering the research and development of intuitive coral regenerative substrates with a bio-inspired design. And the needed our help.
Over the next few months, we worked closely to name the products, create a narrative and logo, and build a brand architecture to secure key investors and get this project off the ground and in the water.
Designed to mimic established coral, IntelliReefs grow robust and healthy marine habitats. We built a logo directly inspired by the weaving shape and color of healthy stag horn and fan coral. The weaving coral grow out of a base representing the IntelliReef. This mark is one that is sturdy, structural and stands alone in its market.
We created an interactive “Tap to plant the Reefling” Instagram story for use on SeaLegacy’s account.
Phase 1 of the project culminated with Aaron and I taking part in the pilot launch in St. Maarten, along with Dr. David Vaughan, material scientist experts, venture capitalists, NatGeo photographers and local conservationists.
Take a peek at a few of SeaLegacy’s Instagram posts detailing the project. Our role is called out by the mention of @JWTNY.
Please play the video below to get a sense of the pilot project and the role our branding played in making it a reality.