The biggest number of experts. The most precise data. The understanding to save our complex ecosystems.

Save Our Species (SOS) had it all.

Yet they couldn’t convince businesses and institutions to donate to their cause because nobody really understood what they were doing – or why.

Species conservation is a highly complex subject and it’s hard to understand which key species to prioritize to avoid irreversible damage on our ecosystems in the long-term.

But that’s a complicated story to tell to get donations.

To raise funds, we needed to clarify this story – and simply explain why saving species is crucial to us, humans, and especially to our audience of CEOs and donators that is ROI focused and time-starved.

For SOS, nature is a system in which every species coexists. When one becomes endangered the whole system is at risk. And so are we.

We turned their vision of conservation into a self-explanatory metaphor: the domino effect.

This is something we can all relate to, making the fragile equilibrium of our ecosystem clear. If one domino falls, the whole chain collapses, the last domino being the human species. This makes their story relevant to everyone and gives a new meaning to the “Save Our Species” brand name.

With a simple visualization, our brand drives our audiences to take action to keep nature standing.

We created a simple visual metaphor of a domino chain reaction, that we apply to all elements of the brand: the logo, the graphics, the typography, the editorial.

This communicative design system enables the creation of impactful, flexible graphics spanning from logo to individual activation stories. With one simple idea applied to its assets, the brand can now tell a story about the risk of the whole system collapsing as well as the possible extinction of a specific species.

All the brand’s executions become free communication campaigns, establishing a dialogue with its audiences.

Dominos on the verge of falling show we can all act to change the outcome and, ultimately, Save Our Species.

The new brand identity was well received by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the most influent conservation organization. IUCN Global Communications Director, Ricardo Tejada, has described the idea as “a stroke of genius, telling the whole story in one sight.”

Since its brand refresh, SOS managed to secure $19 million from the European Union, develop further partnerships with Lacoste, Kering and Ikea and create a capsule collection with Coq en Pâte, an ethical kids fashion brand.