Reframing a successful land-conservation effort for a broader regional mission.
00 / Overview
A new organization built for the next stretch of the coast.
After the Banning Ranch conservation effort achieved its defining land-protection victory, the organization’s purpose expanded. Agency689 created the Coastal Corridor Alliance name, strategy, identity, messaging, website, ecommerce shop, and merchandise system for a wider mission: protecting and restoring the Santa Ana River Coastal Corridor.
Role Brand and Digital Partner
Client Coastal Corridor Alliance
Services Brand Strategy / Naming / Visual Identity / Messaging / Copywriting / Website Design and Development / Ecommerce / Merchandise Design
01 / Strategy and Naming
From one land campaign to an alliance for the corridor.
The new name widened the frame from a single property to a connected ecological system. “Alliance” recognized the role of volunteers, partners, donors, agencies, and residents, while “Coastal Corridor” gave the expanded geography a clear public name.
The brand had to feel rooted in the local ecosystem while staying clear enough to perform across nonprofit communications, environmental partnerships, social graphics, embroidered apparel, ecommerce product cards, and community outreach.
02 / Identity
A local species became the signal.
The least tern, closely tied to the corridor’s biodiversity, informed the primary mark. Its blade-like wings, black tips, and eye mask became a crisp illustration supported by colors drawn from wetlands, bluffs, water, and the surrounding landscape.
The final system paired the tern with a local color story drawn from the wetlands, bluffs, waterways, and conservation landscape, then extended into monochrome versions, embroidery, social use, and brand guidelines.
03 / Website and Messaging
Turning understanding into participation.
The website organized the mission around land areas, planning, habitat restoration, beach cleanups, news, resources, volunteer activity, donations, and the shop. The structure gave visitors direct paths from learning to subscribing, volunteering, donating, and staying involved.
04 / Merchandise and Ecommerce
Advocacy people could wear and share.
Species artwork expanded the identity into apparel, accessories, and ecommerce collections. Merchandise gave supporters another way to fund the work, identify with the landscape, and carry the mission into the community.
That structure matters: the brand had to move people from awareness into participation, giving supporters clear ways to learn, volunteer, donate, subscribe, and stay involved.
05 / Organizational Response
A clearer public identity for a growing organization.
Since launch, the client has reported stronger public understanding, donations, volunteer participation, and organizational growth. The brand now supports advocacy, education, fundraising, commerce, and community participation as connected parts of the same mission.
Each badge connects the CCA name to a specific local species, giving supporters a more personal way to identify with the land, water, and wildlife the organization protects.
06 / Ecommerce
The shop made advocacy visible and wearable.
The ecommerce extension brought the brand into Shopify, with product categories for apparel, accessories, the Wildlife Collection, and the Coastal Corridor Collection.
Merchandise gave supporters another path into the mission: a way to fund the work, share the identity, and turn conservation into something people could wear, gift, and carry into the community.
