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 Inc. (LVI) 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: landcarevictoria.org.au 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 Inc.’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 LVI 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 LVI’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 LVI (featured bottom right above). Tagline reads: “Strengthening Communities. Restoring Environments.”

We have continued to partner with Landcare Victoria Inc. in 2022 and 2023. Recent projects include: 

*The format for the election policy statement was an A4 booklet printed sustainably on EcoStar 100% recycled 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 Victorian state election (held in November, 2022).

How is this ethical?

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

LVI’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 Inc. 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

We chose a clean and minimal design for the organisation’s 2022 and 2023 annual reports that purposefully limited page bleeds and the over use of full page images (which require large amounts of ink coverage). The end result is a beautiful, user-friendly report document that gets the message to key stakeholders while continuing to strengthen Landcare Victoria Inc.’s visual brand identity year on year.

Our design decision to introduce a white border on all of LVI’s printed (and digital) collateral, was a conscious effort to bypass the intensive de-inking processes during recycling and has become a distinct branding element.

The 2022 Victorian 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 has been calculated to offset these various design and print projects.

See for yourself…

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