Sea Life Love
Project Roles:
Logo Design, Brand Identity, Bag Paintings, Product Photography + Styling, Crowdfunding Design, Business Collateral, Social Media Layouts, Newsletter & Email Campaigns, Web Design (via custom code on Squarespace - HTML/CSS/Javascript), Copywriting
Timeline:
2019 - Ongoing
When the fledgling sustainable product company Sea Life Love presented me with the opportunity to create the premiere watercolor artwork for their eco-friendly tote bags, I was thrilled. Founded by Florida-local Linda Symmonds, the company's goal was to create a sustainable, versatile canvas tote bag with captivating art representing marine life – and with generous proceeds from each sale going directly to sea life conservation charities.
Along the way, our creative partnership expanded, and not only did I become the artist for the bags, but the head company graphic/web designer and photographer, handling essentially all visual tasks.
Sea life has always had a special place in my heart - I grew up 5 minutes away from the ocean during my childhood. From the start, this side project has been a dream for me, because of the creative flexibility allowed, the complete immersion in the entire brand and visual development process from day one, and the chance to help craft a meaningful company with activism, purpose, and hope at its core.
The Logo
The logo I created for Sea Life Love is simple, balanced, trustworthy, and bright, which works well across its primarily digitally-based marketing platform. Paired with a watercolor ocean backdrop that I painted and scanned, the elements come together to create a crisp, compelling, and memorable brand presence that functions across multimedia channels.
My Paintings
Bright, ultra-detailed, and full of storybook-esque gentleness, the marine scene artwork I created for Sea Life Love’s first line of bags started off as sketches in Adobe Sketch (now Adobe Fresco) and progressed through the stages of digital watercolor painting (with Kyle Webster’s excellent watercolor brush set). Knowing that elements of the paintings would be woven throughout the branding later on, I made sure to create compositions of the sea creatures that worked jointly and yet also independently.
The Photography
I was additionally commissioned to take photography of the bags to help create content for social media, the crowdfunding launch campaign, the website, and general promotions throughout the year. To date, I've taken over 150 photos for the brand.
The Crowdfunding Campaign
Initially, to bring the project to life for this new company and help fund the first production run of bags, we had to utilize the power of crowdfunding. We picked Start Some Good: a platform designed exclusively to help connect projects with social good overtones to supportive communities of interested individuals.
We ended up exceeding our fundraising goal, and received special attention from Start Some Good project coordinators for the originality and aesthetics of our campaign—as seen below.
The full campaign (in far more detail than I can display here) can be found at www.startsomegood.com/sealifelove.
(Note - All content for the campaign was written and designed by me, except for the campaign video, which was created by Bobbie Vance).
The Website
After the success of the crowdfunding campaign, it was time to establish a web presence for Sea Life Love's products and initiatives. Meant to mimic the look-and-feel of a large, well-established ecommerce store, I built a clean, modern website that Sea Life Love can grow into as it continues to expand its reach and product offerings.
Website live link: sealifelove.com
The Blog
As part of the strategic plan for attracting new customers and brand followers, Sea Life Love blogs frequently. I created an eye-catching, on-brand template for the blog post graphics that we share and promote through Facebook and Pinterest.
Marketing and Campaigns
Sea Life Love consistently engages its audience through thoughtfully-designed email newsletters. With a growing email list of over 1000 members, the brand highlights important news about sea life, environmental protection of marine and coastal habitats, and sustainability outreach. Below is an example of an informational and promotional email I designed for a coronavirus sale campaign.
And...the work continues.
Having worked extensively with the brand for over a year now, I've had the experience of growing a brand from a mere idea to an endeavor at scale. As Sea Life Love's Brand Director, I'm excited to continue collaborating with the founder on this passion project in my free time! 🌊