Now in its second year, the Tusk Conservation Awards single out individuals who have done outstanding environmental conservation work throughout Africa, with particular focus on protecting endangered species and their threatened habitat. The prestigious honor includes a monetary contribution of £30,000 and £15,000 to support the goals of the winning projects. What the fledgling award didn’t have, however, was its own graphic identity. For that, London-based The Partners stepped up and provided their creative talent pro bono.


For the design of the Tusk awards identity,The Partners took their inspiration from the bold geometric shapes and colors of traditional African textile, and configured the repetitive pattern so that a close-up section could be read as a wordmark. Amazingly versatile, the pattern changes in style from rhythmically abstract when viewed as tribal art to contemporary when blown up large to serve as the graphic accent on page layouts. The wordmark even looks like native craftsmanship when beaded into wristbands. These wristbands were given to awards nominees and ceremony dignitaries.

Going forward, the Tusk identity offers countless opportunities to isolate and combine different graphic elements so that the brand feels continually fresh yet easily identifiable as related to Tusk.