Since its inception in 2013, the Vancouver School Board Sustainability Conference strives to promote sustainable actions and lifestyles through their sustainability conference. Every year, the VSBSC welcomes over 200 attendees from across the Vancouver district and beyond, connecting like-minded individuals for a day of education, growth, and inspiration. Through workshops, an NGO fair, and mentor sessions, the VSBSC creates a platform for discussion and education.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Vancouver School Board Sustainability Conference has been split from an annual day long event into multiple online webinars and mentor sessions. The VSBSC approached me to create a new brand identity that better reflected their beliefs and could be used in a contemporary setting.
It is important for the new mark to represent their three guiding principles: sustainability, education, and Vancouver. The identity I created uses the shape of Vancouver to create a sense of place allowing residents of Vancouver to see themselves inside the mark. By adding the eye, it makes the mark alive representing pacific salmon. The salmon symbolize the delicate balance that we have to hold when talking about sustainability and the earth. Where salmon play a crucial role in maintaining the ecosystem through the transport of nutrients and energy between ocean, and freshwater environments, we must also be mindful of our own actions and how we could maintain balance in the ecosystems we live in.
Seaweed plays an important role in maintaining marine ecosystems. As the first organism in marine food chains, they provide nutrients and energy to the animals that eat them. Like the seaweed, the blobs play an important role in the brand identity. Being a main design element carried through the identity, it creates movement and breathes life into the brand.
