Super Normal

Brand identity for an environmental nonprofit who working to prevent roadkills

Brand Identity
Custom Typography
Illustration
Motion Graphics

We were assigned to create a brand with the name “Super Normal” based on a topic that we are personally interested in or aware of. The idea of wildlife animal prevention immediately came up in my mind. It was supposed to be normal to encounter animals everywhere until habitat losses had become a severe problem. One of the biggest problems is roadkill. One million animals are killed each day on roads in the United States. Therefore, I decided to make Super Normal an environmental organization that aims to prevent animals from roadkills. The custom typeface was inspired by the forms of conservatory bridges above highways that allow animals to cross. The font represents Super Normal’s goal: build the bridges above roads to save animals. Another challenge was to find a way to get people’s attention without scaring them with bloody photos of dead animals. I created the illustrations of the most killed animals on roads with the same grid that was applied to the font. By using the font and the illustrations together with the same visual treatment, the design can show the contrast between life and death. If we cut the road, we can save animals. But if we cut the animals, which I stenciled the illustration to represent the animals that were run over by a car, we kill them.

More wildlife animals are killed by cars each day than we ever could have imagined

For the last century, automobiles and the roads they require have been the dominant force shaping the modern American landscape. There are more cars per capita in the United States than in any other nation in the world. As human activity increases with soaring overpopulation and an increasing number of vehicles, more than one million animals die each day on roads in the United States. Road mortality is the leading cause of vertebrate deaths in the U. S., surpassing hunting within the last thirty years. In the United States, there are 21 threatened and endangered species whose very survival is threatened by road mortalities, including Key deer in Florida, bighorn sheep in California, and red-bellied turtles in Alabama.

Save animals' lives by building conservation bridges

There’s one solution, however, that’s been remarkably effective around the world in decreasing collisions between cars and animals crossing the road: wildlife under- and overpasses. Studies that looked at a cross-section of native species' deaths on highways in Florida, bandicoots and wallabies in Australia, and jaguars in Mexico, just to name a few, all show that wildlife crossings save money and lives, both human and animal. Bridges that lend a life-saving hand to wildlife are already a staple in Europe, but these sweet structures are, unfortunately, few and far between in the U.S.

The custom stencil condensed typeface that translated the form of bridges across highways

The custom typeface for Super Normal was inspired by the form of a bridge overpass a highway. Two long and bold verticle strokes that were cut by a horizontal stroke became the initial sketch of the stencil typeface. Typically, the cuts of stencil typefaces are considered negative spaces. However, the cuts became positive areas rather than negative in the font for the brand.

The same treatments that have different meanings

One of the problems that I was facing was imageries selection. Most of the photos of roadkill animals are too sad and scary to be shown on posters or any other brand elements. Therefore, I decided to use illustration as a communicative tool. Since the illustrations will be used with the custom typeface, I used the same grid to create them. Besides, I also stenciled the illustrations but gave it the opposite meaning. When the letters were cut, it represents the bridge above the highways, which can save the animals. However, if we stencil the animals, we kill them. The cuts of the illustrations represent the animals that were run over by cars. This idea was also developed into the slogan of the brand "Don't cut an animal. Cut the roads."