Deepening Focus & Widening Impact for an Environmental Pioneer

In recent years, American Forests had undergone significant change with new leadership and a new vision for social impact that centers forests as solutions to systemic issues like climate change, racism, and equity. When it came to its website, American Forests faced two major challenges—a design system and website that were stuck in the past and failed to live up to their bold progressive vision. Behind-the-scenes, loads of technical debt and a fragile CMS were frustrating staff and creating vulnerabilities. We partnered with American Forests to develop a design system that differentiates the environmental nonprofit from the visual sameness that dominated its space, a digital strategy that brings vibrant imagery and impact stories to the forefront, and a technical ecosystem that supports staff, members, and fundraising operations.

After auditing American Forests’ existing website to understand what was in place, we conducted robust research through multiple lenses to understand American Forests and develop strategies to effectively engage them. To understand the ecosystem in which American Forests operates, we conducted internal and external brand research that deepened understanding of the nonprofit’s space and place in it. Surveys, interviews, and workshops centered attention on the needs and motivations audiences bring to the interconnected issues American Forests works on to understand how it could best speak to them. After weeks of investigation, it was time to create a strategy to position American Forests’ brand, articulate a clear message, and design experiences that would connect people to the mission.

With a deep understanding of American Forests, their ecosystem, audiences, and the issues, we distilled learnings into a focused, integrated strategy. Goals and challenges clearly establish what we’re working towards. Brand drivers and strategic design principles articulate what American Forests must embody to succeed. Audience profiles describe the nature of American Forests’ brand relationships. Issue framing explains how to lead productive conversations on difficult issues. And key themes provide specific strategies to develop messaging, branding, and a website within this framework. After a rigorous review and refinement of the strategy with American Forests’ team, everyone was aligned and ready to execute the strategy.

It was finally time to translate strategy, branding, and UX into an online brand experience to represent American Forests to the world! We started the design process by establishing a new design system that introduces a new system of colors, typography, illustrations, and visual elements. Once the system was in place, we applied design concepts to key pages that set the tone for the brand experience. In partnership with American Forests’ team, we then iteratively reviewed and extended design in stages, discussing and refining as we built a comprehensive design system of styles, components, and templates that carry throughout the website. The result delivers a strongly branded perspective for the environmental nonprofit, visually framing every piece of content and call-to-action.

American Forests’ multifaceted work addresses climate, environmental, social, and economic issues at many levels. The environmental nonprofit combines policy work, place-based partnerships, and field research across the nation to execute a comprehensive, systemic approach that advances solutions to problems that threaten forests, that increase climate resilience, and that increase racial equity. This complex change narrative is brought to life through visually rich hubs that educate audiences on the issues—then connects to profiles of American Forests’ many programs and initiatives to demonstrate the distinct ways that they are making a difference.