MCNAG Branding & Website

MCNAG was formed in 2021 to give conservationists a proper seat at the table in managing the Marine Conservation Zone off the Norfolk coast. Before that, the people who actually knew the reef (divers, surveyors, species recorders) had largely been excluded from the management process. MCNAG exists to change that.

The chalk reef off Norfolk is genuinely unusual. It supports a range of marine wildlife you won't find elsewhere on this stretch of coastline, and it has a small but dedicated group of people working hard to protect it. MCNAG needed a visual identity and a website that reflected that seriousness. Somewhere to publish updates, promote their annual conference, and explain the significance of what they're protecting.

The brief for the brand was to reflect the sea without being too literal about it. The result is a simple wave graphic with a rougher, cut-from-paper quality — immediately recognisable, but with enough character to feel like it belongs to people doing real fieldwork rather than a tourism campaign. On the website the wave is responsive, so it always fills the available space with a single, gently curving line.

The colour palette runs from indigo through blue to green. That range matters because MCNAG has sub-groups — including the Beach Cleaners Collective — and each one can sit in a different part of the same gradient. They feel distinct without losing the connection to the parent organisation.

The website is built in Next.js with Sanity as the CMS, giving the group full control over their own content without needing to come back to us every time something needs updating.