The Nature Conservancy: Festival de la Monarca

In 2022, I had the pleasure of designing a monarch butterfly logo for The Nature Conservancy‘s East Chicago Monarch Festival through CVR.

If you know me, I love nature and was a “bug girl” when I was younger, so I took this project to heart. This festival connects conservation and culture – connecting the migration of monarch butterflies from the US to Mexico and the rich culture and beliefs of what the monarch represents.

In my research, I found out the following about Mexico culture and monarch butterflies:

• used as ornamentation/jewelry

• they represent heroes and important people

• in teotihuacana, toltec, mexica/aztec

• masahuas / monarch means the daughter of the sun

• Aztecs believe butterflies are in charge of taking warriors’ souls and the souls of women who died giving birth to their resting place

• monarchs are the souls of children who died and came back – butterflies migrate back around the day of the dead

• monarch can mean the right path to achieving goals

• Hunabku is a galactic butterfly or one god.

In our first rounds of designs, I presented 3 options based on my research:

One that showed a minimalistic side view of a monarch, including its tongue, inspired by artifacts and symbols, more specifically the Hunab Ku or Galactic Butterfly

One that was a stylized butterfly, inspired by the breastplates of warriors and stone art

One that was more typography-based with a rounded,  stylized monarch within the text

The client loved the first version, the minimalistic side view of a monarch – but wanted a green added to the color palette. Easy peasy!

From there, we finalized the brand identity, provided social media assets, and created a brand sheet.

For as small of a project as this was, I was fully enamored with the challenge and the purpose of this project – to celebrate and bring awareness to monarch conservation and culture.