Ethical Design Co.

A print and digital design agency that cares.

Landcare Victoria featured image - mockup of various pages from the brand guidelines in greyscale

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Landcare Victoria Inc. are one of the largest volunteer environmental organisations in Victoria and an influential voice for the Victorian landcare movement.

Landcare Victoria support landcare communities to achieve integrated sustainable agriculture and environmental outcomes. Landcare Victoria’s vision is for rich and diverse Victorian landscapes, supporting productive farming, healthy ecosystems and thriving communities.

Landcare plays a leading role in advocating a balance between Australian sustainable land management practices and environmental conservation. Over the last 30+ years, Landcare has evolved into one of the largest volunteer movements in Australia. The Landcare model has been so successful it has been adopted in over 20 countries around the world.

Visit: Landcare Victoria for more info.

Brand guidelines development
Icon design
Illustration
Marketing design
Report design
Secondary branding
Sustainable printing

Mockup of 3 pages from Landcare Victoria's Brand Guidelines documentLandcare Victoria brand guidelines mockup showing various pages in full colour

The brief:

We were hired in 2021 to refresh Landcare Victoria’s branding and create their first ever Brand Guidelines document.

The project deliverables included:

  • design, layout and artworking of the 19 page document
  • researching a more modern and vibrant colour palette for Landcare Victoria that represent colours seen in nature in Victoria
  • researching different font options that were suitable both for a website audience and internal document use
  • design of new icons and a custom pattern illustration to create a consistent brand language
  • researching appropriate stock imagery that represent Landcare Victoria’s three focus areas: Landcare Community, Sustainable Agriculture and Environment Management
  • creation of new heading styles and editorial conventions

After the brand guidelines we also worked on a newsletter for Landcare Victoria (featured top right below). Tagline reads: “Strengthening Communities. Restoring Environments.”

We have continued to partner with Landcare Victoria in 2022; designing the organisation’s 2022 Annual Report and Election Policy Statement for the November state election in Victoria.

The format for the election policy statement was an A4 booklet printed sustainably on 100% recycled uncoated EcoStar post-consumer waste paper stock. The intent is that the document will be thrust into the hands of busy politicians around election time who will read it and consider Landcare Victoria’s mission and vision when appealing to voters at the next state election.

How is this ethical?

With 600+ member groups and some 60,000 volunteers, Landcare Victoria is one of the largest environmental volunteer organisations in Victoria, fostering on-ground community led action.

Landcare Victoria’s values reflect the values of the Victorian landcare community, that is: 

  • Grounded in the community and knowledge of local landscapes 
  • Empowering individuals and communities to make a positive difference to their local landscapes 
  • Respectful of the knowledge of diverse groups of people with a connection to the land, including First Nations people 
  • Collaborative approach to achieving outcomes.

As a sustainable and environmentally conscious business based in Victoria, we are big supporters of Landcare Victoria and strong advocates for the wider grassroots environmental movement that has been active in Australia since the progressive Bob Hawke era in the mid-1980s. Similarly, our sustainable business model is built around planet before profit.

Our sustainability strategy

For the organisation’s 2022 Annual Report, we kept the document clean and minimal with no bleeds and few pages with large amounts of ink coverage. This reduces the need for intensive de-inking processes during recycling. The end result was beautiful, got the message to key stakeholders and continued to strengthen Landcare Victoria’s new brand identity.

The November 2022 Election Policy Statement was also designed with these sustainability measures in mind. We printed the A4 booklets on FSC certified 100% recycled EcoStar paper stock.

Our annual donation of trees will offset these design and print projects.

See for yourself…

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