More Than Just a Bottle of Kelp

The brand strategy behind the tarkiner brands was ambitious but simple—create something that captured the culture, tradition and pride of the First Nations people of the tarkine in an innovative and exciting way. Critical in designing the tarkiner house of brands was the consideration of the long, sensitive First Nations community history while reflecting their sense of empowerment and strength. Moreover, the design also had to be flexible to give each of the businesses individuality, yet still be complementary to show how they're connected. The brands also needed to allow for stretch to sustain future scalability.

To comprehend the enormity of this brief, Carbon immersed themselves in the region, listening to First Nations community members and spending time on Country to appreciate its rich and raw beauty. This resulted in a suite of logos that were inspired by Fibonacci sequence, which appears everywhere in nature in the spirals of leaves, shells and waves. Each logo keeps the Fibonacci sequence at its core, but instead of using the spiral, uses the values of the Golden Ratio to create a unique branding story that represents the people and places of The tarkine.

The launch of tarkiner as a brand has only been recent (May 2024), but already the impact on the local tarkine community has been huge. In July 2024, tarkiner indoor plant food launched in an exclusive deal with leading hardware chain, Bunnings Warehouse and market leading fertiliser brand, Seasol. The product was hugely successful and sold out within months. Due to this fast and triumphant impact, the product is in production again. With early interest from the New Zealand market, the product line is already expanding and export opportunities are also being negotiated in the previously out-of-reach market, China.