Revolutionary Technology needs a Revolutionary Brand

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services

UI ENHANCEMENTS

ANIMATIONS & INTERACTIONS

SEO OPTIMIZATION

ADA COMPLIANCE

timeline

7 months

package-type

Launchpads (3)

missions (3)

restorefoodware.com

overview

To start this story off right, let’s take a small step back. Newlight Technologies, the parent company of Restore Foodware, started its long journey in 2003 to end plastic pollution and become one of the TRUE solutions to climate change. It took them over 14 years to perfect this technology.
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What is this revolutionary technology you are talking about? In a little complex English, they take greenhouse gases and carbon-emissions out of the atmosphere and turn them into a polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) that can be melted and transformed into a biomaterial they call AirCarbon. Oh.. and we forgot to mention, it’s 100% biodegradable.
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In plainer English, they take carbon out of the atmosphere and make 100% biodegradable products out of the material the carbon produces. These products are 100% safe for our environment, oceans, land, and all animals that live on earth... Absolutely revolutionary.
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Shadow Secret - If you’re thinking… did you work with Newlight Technologies as well? Yes, we did. Check out the project we did for Newlight here!
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Back to the problem. So, what happens when a start-up like Newlight creates an amazing technology like this?

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One, they need a way to pay the bills. Because, after all... the only way we can keep this company going is to take care of the brilliant team behind it all.

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Two, they want to show that this technology can replace a number of products that are harmful to our environment today. And, let’s take it a step further. Not only replace them, but replace them and reduce our carbon footprint to help solve the bigger problems with climate change.

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Newlight’s solution was a commercial brand that could replace the entire plastic straw and cutlery industry.
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When Newlight’s COO, Evan Creelman reached out to our team, the question the team posed to each other was...
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How do we create a commercial brand that showcases the mission Restore is on - “to help save our oceans and end plastic pollution” - but still capture the essence of Newlight and the foundation they have built over the last 17 years?

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restorefoodware.com

PROJECT GOALS &
OBJECTIVE

• Create a brand identity that effortlessly captures the mission & values of the company

• Design a platform with best-practice UX & UI design to enable core functionality aimed at their target audience

• Establish a brand voice that promotes community, togetherness, and hope

restorefoodware.com

the Solution

At Shadow, we pride ourselves in being able to say we help “Launch” brands. But, what does “From Concept to Launch” really mean?

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From the first few days of Evan Creelman (COO of Newlight) bringing the initial idea with just a name (Restore) to our team, until the final days heading into launch, our team was there the entire way.

The workshops, ideation sessions, UX activities, concepting, prototyping, iterations, sprint planning, focus groups, user testing, packaging design, you name it... We didn’t shy away from one step of the process to ensure the team at restore foodware received exactly what they were looking for.

The project began with a simple concept of what the visual identity of Restore Foodware meant to us, our future users, and the restore team (consisting of Newlight Technology Executives).

Over the course of the first 6-8 weeks, this concept provided a guiding light and creative direction for our team to dig deeper into the true benefits of the product. This way, our creativity was a direction to understanding the functionality we needed to showcase.

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Typically, we steer away from jumping into the creative side of a project first, however, we knew the identity of the brand would be a driving force for the future, therefore, we needed to align on a vision before we jumped into functionality and user-experience.

Sometimes, you have to TRULY work backwards in order to take leaps ahead. Each project, each client, and each problem we tackle will be different. We believe it is imperative to strategically map each project’s goals back to it’s vision to provide the maximum amount of value we can. Sometimes, this means working creatively first and other times it means looking at the architecture to begin with.

The challenge with restore was not listing out the benefits of the product, the challenge was how we could explain the technology in a way that users could easily understand the benefits without being thrown off by a “corporate-y” or “scammy” product that didn’t truly have the benefits we showcased. Authenticity was our challenge, authenticity was our mission.

From there, the work transitioned into the website, brand guide, packaging and creative assets for existing and potential buyers. We believed the site should bring out the visual representation of what the values of the company were. The tone, the voice, the imagery, and the product-centric photography.

After a number of iterations, we were ready to launch and move forward.

So, what does “From Concept to Launch” mean to our team?

Take an intangible idea, thought, or concept. Provide the right mix of creativity, research, and critical thinking. Evisculate the noise, the fluff, and the indecision. And finally, launch. In order to learn the most about your brand, you need to launch it first. Only then can we truly understand if our vision is on the right course or not.