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iSimangaliso Wetland Park

Brand identity, visual language, strategy and digital

Agency: Framework

iSimangaliso is a 320 000 hectare wetland park containing three major lake systems, eight interlinking ecosystems, 700 year old fishing traditions, most of South Africa’s remaining swamp forests, Africa’s largest estuarine system, 526 bird species and 25 000 year old coastal dunes.


It was first visited in 1250 by Arab explorers, then inhabited by the Tsonga people moving South on the continent. Inhabited in 1670 by the Dutch and finally in 1822 by the British. They officially annexed the area in 1895 to stop the boers getting to the coast and a setting up a northern port. After Shaka Zulu was assassinated his right hand man Jeqe fled to avoid a similar fate and arrived at the wetland and proclaimed “I have seen the miracles and wonder.
 

But it was only in 1999 that Nelson Mandela officially renamed the park iSimangaliso place of miracle and wonder. He said at the time. “The Wetland Park must be the only place on the globe where the oldest land mammal (the rhinoceros) and the world’s biggest terrestrial mammal (the elephant) share an ecosystem with the world’s largest fish (the coelocanth) and the world’s biggest marine mammal (the whale)”.

Our challenge

 

Combine the miracle and wonder of the ten jewels or biospheres, a working park with a few hundred thousand visitors a year and a living park with indigenous people subsistence farming. Turn that into a distinctive brand mark that celebrated the rich culture and people of the region - The Zulu culture. A culture rich in stories and fables, describing places with idioms
and legends. The identity had to honour that.

We drew from the rich fauna and flora of the region. The strong geometric shapes of the Zulu culture. The Fibonacci principle or golden ratio so abundant in nature and enclosed it all in a diamond shape representing the 10 jewels that make up the park. 

 

The goal, a living experience brand with the park as the hero.

To create the logo we took inspiration from the indiginous Zulu culture, incorporating angular graphic shapes common in their design language. We borrowed from nature, using the Fibonacci principle and the wonder of ratio in fauna and flora. The diamond holding shape, a reference to the parks 10 jewels. It was completed using a grid system based on the greater than symbol. iSimangaliso is more/greater than the sum of its parts.

iSimangaliso is an experience brand, revealing and navigating the wonder is far more important than branding the space.

isimangaliso.com

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