Clean City (cleancity.global) is a social enterprise located in Chitwan, Nepal that has created a holistic waste management system, the first of its kind in the region.
Taylor, the founder and CEO, came to me asking for a new logo and a complete revamp of her site. Inspired by her heart-felt mission and her dedicated drive to engage locals in creating real change, I was happy to support her efforts.
We chose a simple logo concept using the initials of the brand, placed in a way that hints at the interconnectedness of the different parts of her project, and the closed-loop systems that are central to the Clean City business model.
The logo that we landed on was actually a rough sketch that I had drawn up in the early stages of design - a placeholder for the concept that I imagined I would eventually "clean up". However, as the design for the rest of the brand continued to develop around the placeholder, it started to make more sense to leave it raw, imperfect, but still simple and beautiful.
Taylor is a very unique and artistic person, and as her personality is largely what has helped make her project a success, we agreed it was important to let it come across strong in her site. I drew engaging personalized sketches as icons and we included interactive mind maps and animations in the functionality of the site. I aimed to create something entirely unique to Clean City, not just another nonprofit website.
As the icing on the top of the branding project, she and I spent two sun-scorched days painting a mural at the bus stop in Sauraha, the entry point to Chitwan. A woman in the "namaste" position, stands peacefully on the wall, with wildflowers and leaves decorating her wind-blown hair. We painted it as a prayer for the protection of nature, and as a reminder to both the locals and the tourists to help protect what matters. This was so much fun. We even had a rhino grace us with her presence on the first day painting (WHAT.)!
