The Challenge

Home Planet Fund (HPF) was founded in 2022 by Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard with a $20 million commitment to fight the climate crisis by supporting Indigenous Peoples and local communities already doing the work through nature-based solutions. Their grants are built entirely on trust—100% of funds go directly to communities, with no reporting or proof of impact required.

When their Executive Director reached out to Teal, HPF was a brand new organization: no website, no digital presence, no established design ecosystem. They had a brand designer working on their visual identity, and they needed a strategic partner who could take that foundation and build everything else, from the ground up, in parallel with the organization itself still taking shape.

This was the most expansive kind of project: not a redesign, but a full launch across every digital channel at once.

My Role

I led this project end-to-end, spanning strategy, brand extension, UX, visual design, and art direction across the site, marketing materials, motion work, video, and launch campaign. Because the organization was being built at the same time we were building their digital presence, my role required holding a lot of context simultaneously and staying in close alignment with HPF’s leadership throughout the process.

Brand Extension & Creative Partnership

HPF’s brand designer, Kamilia Kulinova, established the logo and core color palette. We built on that foundation to include bold typography, unexpected layouts, an extended color palette, and a visual language that asserted HPF’s difference from conventional philanthropy. I also pushed that identity into every digital context, making judgment calls about how the visuals would translate into motion graphics, web components, social templates, email design, video, and other graphics.

I collaborated closely with Kamilia throughout, treating this as a genuine creative partnership rather than a handoff. Every decision—typeface application, photograph selection to represent grantee regions with care and specificity, color and composition choices on the website—was made with intention, and with the weight of representing Indigenous Peoples and local communities at the forefront.

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UX & Website Design

From wireframes through final visual design, I designed the full website, starting with a landing page, and then an MVP. I structured the information architecture around HPF’s grantee program regions, and built page templates that could grow with the organization as their grantee community expanded.

The site needed to do several things at once: introduce a brand new organization to the world, communicate a genuinely different philosophy of giving, and create pathways for multiple audiences—potential grantees, donors, press, and partners—to understand HPF’s work and find their entry point. I designed with all of those audiences in mind, building a clear hierarchy that led with HPF’s mission and values before moving into the specifics of their programs.

The visual design carried the brand’s boldness into the web context: unexpected compositional choices, considered use of photography, and a layout sensibility that felt editorial and alive rather than templated.

Digital Marketing Art Direction

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I art directed the full suite of digital marketing assets and templates for launch—social graphics, emails, paid campaign materials and a launch video—ensuring every touchpoint felt cohesive and coordinated. Working closely with the digital marketing team, I helped develop a visual system for social content that was distinct enough to stop a scroll while clearly belonging to the same world as the website.

For the brand video, I storyboarded the narrative arc in close collaboration with our writer, guided the visual approach, and ensured the motion language felt consistent with the rest of the brand ecosystem.

The Launch

The launch was a coordinated push across website, social, email, and partner channels. Within the first week:

• 246% total follower growth across platforms
• 2,511% follower growth on Instagram
• 122% follower growth on LinkedIn
• 380% follower growth on Facebook

“I can’t imagine building Home Planet Fund without the team at Teal. They’re not only great at what they do, they were thought partners in developing our brand, voice, and vision. They are a core part of our organization.”
–Dilafruz Khonikboyeva, Executive Director, Home Planet Fund

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Credits

Designed at Teal Media
Front-end Development: Brandon Amey
Back-end Development: Liz Klarecki, Austin Whipple
Project Manager: Tiffany Wang, Kendall Gilfillan
Design Support: Madie Graham, Dustin Maciag
Digital Marketing Strategy: Selina Sutherland, Lexi Marron
Copywriting: Scott Kirkwood
Motion Graphics: Ronald Cortez
Video: Hayelin Choi