A Brand Evolution That Honors Legacy While Embracing Growth

ESIP serves as the professional home for hundreds of internationally based earth science data professionals. With members spanning diverse disciplines and geographic locations, their community drives critical work in earth science data management and accessibility.

However, their existing website failed to reflect their global membership and made it difficult to understand what they do, why they do it, and how to get involved. Seeking to expand membership and deepen engagement, ESIP needed a new digital home.

THE CHALLENGE

Needing a New Home for Earth Science Data Professionals

ESIP’s website struggled to serve their highly active, internationally diverse membership effectively.

The organization brought together data scientists, researchers, and information professionals working across vastly different specializations, from atmospheric modeling to oceanographic databases. The site made it difficult for potential members to understand membership benefits or find clear pathways to get involved with specific working groups and initiatives.

Years of content accumulation had created confusing navigation that overwhelmed both existing members and prospective participants. The outdated design made their established brand feel stale, though they valued their existing identity and didn’t want a complete overhaul.

Adding complexity, they had already begun working with another agency but weren’t getting the strategic approach and results their sophisticated community deserved.

Key challenges included:

Serving very active membership with diverse work across different earth science areas
Unclear membership benefits and confusing paths for potential members to join
Overwhelming content volume with confusing navigation structure
Outdated design that made an established brand feel stale without requiring complete rebrand
Previous agency engagement that wasn’t meeting their community’s sophisticated needs
Need for flexibility to accommodate diverse workflows and integrations under one brand

CORE QUESTIONS

What We Set Out to Solve

The core questions we tackled for this project included:

How do you ensure a website with such an active, diverse community actually meets all their varied needs?

How can you successfully evolve a brand — keeping its core identity while giving it a fresh, more professional start?

From a technical perspective, how do you create flexibility for very diverse workflows and integrations while maintaining brand consistency?

Our Process

From Diverse Voices to Unified Vision

Our Nonprofit Beacon assessment included extensive listening sessions with ESIP’s diverse membership to understand their varied needs and workflows.

Strategy and alignment workshops explored how to honor their established identity while elevating their professional presence. We worked to understand both the highly technical needs of existing members and the information needs of potential participants from various earth science disciplines.

UX research revealed how different member types — from data managers to climate researchers — currently used the site and where they encountered frustration. We developed two design directions that evolved their brand thoughtfully while accommodating their community’s sophisticated technical requirements.

This collaborative process ensured the final approach would serve both their established membership and future growth goals.

Outcomes

A Digital Home Worthy of Their Work

The evolved brand maintains ESIP’s core logo and colors while introducing new accent colors with a more serious, earthy feel that reflects their scientific focus. Custom iconography and a new font choice reinforce their professional scientific identity, while playful touches like animated file folders add personality without compromising credibility. The refreshed design successfully bridges established identity with contemporary professional standards.

The new homepage and four core pages clearly communicate membership benefits and provide intuitive pathways for different types of earth science professionals to get involved. Navigation streamlines access to key resources while accommodating the technical complexity their diverse membership requires.

ESIP now has a digital presence that matches the sophistication of their international community and effectively attracts new members who can contribute to their important earth science data initiatives.

Testimonial

What Allison Had to Say About Us

“Since working with Pixel Lighthouse, we’ve seen a 63% increase in our website traffic.”

– Allison Mills, Communications Director at ESIP

CONCLUSION

A Strengthened Global Community

Over roughly four months, we helped ESIP transform from an outdated, confusing website into a sophisticated digital home that truly serves their diverse community.

Ready to create a website that genuinely meets your professional community’s complex needs? Book a call with us to explore how strategic design can elevate your organization’s digital presence.

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Schedule a free 20-minute strategy session with Austin and Andrea. We’ll talk about where you’ve been, where you’d like to go, and how your website can help you get there.