How&How gave conservation charity On the Edge a tree-frog icon you can read like type

On the Edge (OTE) takes a digital approach to conservation, educating people about Evolutionary Distinct and Globally Endangered (Edge) species through online applications — a mobile game, Save the Purple Frog, an animated pangolin series and biodiversity documentaries — while funding scientific research and conservation projects.

Design the blur between screen and species: glass panels that clarify or distort into noise and extinction, plus an icon from tree-frog markings that read like type.

How&How built the identity from glass panels and edges representing the blurred interface between screens and the outside world; the icon takes its patterns from endangered tree frogs, whose markings resemble letterforms — 'by reading an animal in a typographic way, we wanted to reinforce the communication and dialogue needed between humans and nature'. The palette nods to bioluminescence, matched with a pared-back grid and neon accents to counter OTE's zany content. TWK Everett from Weltkern, chosen for sharp cuts and edges, pairs with Simplon Mono for an academic touch. How&How also designed the new website.

A full identity system and website launched in December 2021 for the charity's games, series and documentaries, bridging Gen Z audiences and the organisation's 50% scientist staff. The source reports no audience figures.

On the Edge protects Evolutionary Distinct and Globally Endangered species — the weird ones with no close relatives, like the world's only purple amphibian — through a distinctly digital toolkit: the mobile game Save the Purple Frog, an animated series about pangolins and documentaries on biodiversity, alongside real scientific research and funded conservation projects.

How&How, the studio behind rebrands for The Wombles and Aruba Conservation Foundation, gave the charity an identity built on one idea: the blurred interface between our screens and the outside world. Glass panels and edges sometimes appear with clarity, sometimes 'distort into noise and oblivion. Or extinction', as co-founder and creative director Cat How puts it — the design system itself carries the stakes.

The icon is borrowed from the animals: endangered tree-frog markings that resemble letterforms and characters, so that 'reading an animal in a typographic way' reinforces the dialogue between humans and nature. A bioluminescence-inspired palette sits on a pared-back grid with neon accents, deliberately calmer than the colourful zany content the charity produces; sharp-cut TWK Everett pairs with Simplon Mono's academic touch to keep the organisation's scientist half — 50% of its staff — on side while speaking Gen Z's language online.

A digital-first conservation charity needed its interface aesthetic to carry its message, not just decorate it — glass that dissolves into noise makes extinction visible.

Reading frog markings as typography turns 'communication between humans and nature' into a literal design mechanic.

Bioluminescence gives the palette a scientific story rather than an arbitrary brand colour.

Restraint in the grid stops the identity competing with the charity's own playful content for attention.

For a charity that lives online but protects the offline world, the interface itself is the story — make the design system dramatise the blur, and extinction, visually.

The identity and new website launched in December 2021, wrapping OTE's games, animated series and documentaries. How&How went on to more conservation-sector work, including the Aruba Conservation Foundation identity. The source reports no audience figures.