Forests are essential for providing clean air and water, supporting a broad range of biodiversity, and creating recreation opportunities which are especially important to Coloradans. However, many of Colorado’s forests are unhealthy which can increase the risk of uncharacteristic, mega wildfires which is on top of mind for many of its citizens. Looking to educate a broad range of stakeholders and the general public, Colorado Mass Timber Coalition (CMTC) teamed with design studio Wunder Werkz for an adventurous brand that presents the case for improved forest health through a mass timber economy within the state and region.

The CMTC is a broad alliance of more than 360 members across 150 public and private institutions that aims to accelerate the adoption of mass timber products and technology in Colorado’s next generation of buildings and other locally-derived forest products. The organization promotes the use of mass timber through storytelling, linking the sustainable forestry practices to the local forest products economy and how they can benefit forest and watershed health, rural communities, and a sustainable built environment including addressing our housing needs.

For Wunder Werkz, building the CMTC brand meant completely shifting people’s perceptions of timber, its origins and utility. “We needed to harken back to an era when people had a different relationship with the forest and nature,” explains Jon Hartman, Partner at Wunder Werkz. “Before the digital era, things moved a bit slower and felt more tactile and real. And while we understood that one of the major interface points with this brand would still be the internet, the brand needed enough warmth and nostalgia to help people connect with a topic that can be very academic.”

Finding that balance between feeling entertaining and informative, Wunder Werkz created the overall visual identity for CMTC and concepts behind it, as well as building out its web presence and broad range of collateral. Beginning with the wordmark, the studio created a custom san serif type inspired by 1960s and 1970s outdoor brands and designed to be approachable, affable and flexible. It is displayed in lower case, adding a conversational tone to communications. The colors have a similarly retro appeal, with a “pine” green, “alpenglow” orange and “sky” white color system inspired by and crafted to reflect the Colorado landscape. Elsewhere across the identity, landscape photos are saturated, distressed and treated to give images a textured, throwback outdoorsy feel.

However, the most surprising part of the identity system are its mascots. Created to represent and communicate the lifecycle of timber, there are three mascot stages: a full tree representing forestry, a log symbolizing harvesting and processing, and mass timber to represent the built environment. These characters not only give the CMTC an approachable way to talk about sustainable forestry, forest products, and the built environment but also how they are all linked together.

This personification of the timber continues elsewhere in the identity system – adding “eye” graphic elements to tree photography as well as real trees and mass timber as a form of tongue in cheek signage. “The eyes are what transform a log, a tree or a beam into a character and make you think about them differently,” says Hartman. “Every tree is a living thing that can regrow. It’s a sustainable product that can become the building material of the future. Both the eyes and characters are playful and thought-provoking, speaking to a new audience with messaging that can help break the ice and be a conversation starter.”

“The reality is that not a lot of people know much about our forests, much less mass timber, and how essential they are to our daily lives,” continues Hartman. “With this new brand for CMTC, we hope to change that while continuing to challenge ourselves by constantly inventing and evolving. At Wunder Werkz, we’re pretty passionate about sustainability and the future of our planet. Hopefully, our work on this project will help CMTC share its important message and make a positive impact.”