Nature Back from the Brink
Nature Back from the Brink
Background
// The brief
Back from the Brink is a campaign run by a coalition of seven UK conservation charities. The ambition of the campaign is to rescue 20 of the most threatened UK species from extinction.
We were asked by The RSPB, one of the partners, to help with bringing together a digital presence for the campaign, raising awareness and inspiring people to get involved in volunteering opportunities as part of the project.
Structure
// Designing for engagement
From the outset, our intention was to use the amazing, but little known, UK species as the entry point for telling the story. We wanted to use great photography and accessible content to bring the conservation projects to life for an audience who wouldn't usually get involved in conservation work.
We worked closely with the project team at the RSPB to structure the projects into short sections that communicate the key information in an interesting way, we provided space to pull out fascinating facts that give an insight into the problems facing the species. We linked the stories of the projects to the ongoing work to save those species through promoting events and highlighting news linked to each project.
Designing the look
// Honing the visual identity
One of the key things that we wanted to achieve was to create a design that allowed the images of the species to stand out. We wanted to keep the surrounding design simple, clean and sharp and give plenty of screen real-estate to the imagery.
At the start of the project we had an existing logo and colour-scheme to work with. In the page design we echoed elements from the logo, such as the use of uppercase text and the 'declining slope' angle.
The existing colour-scheme for the project was quite broad, with six main colours.
For the website, we decided to reduce the colour palette to just two highlight colours, which we used throughout the designs. This gave the site a much more focussed look. The bold colours also worked really well for making calls to action stand out.
The final stage of the visual presentation was to give the pages a sense of movement. To do this we added in some small elements of animation. We used image slideshows, titles that subtly fade in and animated timelines that drop in as you scroll.
Saving species
// Raising awareness of species loss
The Back from the Brink project has been a great success. It was featured on BBC Breakfast and has substantially raised the profile of conservation work that often goes on behind the scenes.
The website has provided a hub for news, competitions, and events. This has really helped to highlight the vital projects to bring 20 of our most threatened species back from the brink of extinction.
