Rhove Africa
Building a conservation brand from vision to movement
Project
Rhove Africa
Year
2019 – Present
Services
Role
Creative Direction
Brand Strategist
Content Production
Industry
Conservation
E-commerce
Location
Laguna Beach, California
About the project
Rhove Africa began with a simple but powerful idea from founder Nina Kubicek: create a brand that helps people fall in love with rhinos and become more connected to conservation through storytelling, design, education, and community.
My role was to transform that vision into a complete brand ecosystem.
Over the course of our collaboration, I worked across strategy, creative direction, branding, digital design, product development, content, social media, photography campaigns, and community growth to help build Rhove Africa from the ground up.
The Challenge
Rhino conservation is a crowded and emotionally charged space.
Many organizations focus on fundraising, statistics, and crisis messaging. While important, these approaches often struggle to create long-term engagement with younger audiences.
The challenge was to build a brand that felt different.
A brand that could educate without preaching.
A brand that could inspire without relying on guilt.
A brand that could make people feel connected to rhinos through design, storytelling, and everyday experiences.
Most importantly, we needed to build trust, credibility, and a community from scratch.
The Approach
Instead of treating Rhove as another conservation campaign, we approached it as a lifestyle brand with a conservation mission.
Every touchpoint needed to reinforce the same idea:
RHINO + LOVE = RHOVE
This philosophy became the foundation for every decision, from product design and photography to content strategy and digital experiences.
Building an Entire Ecosystem
The project quickly evolved far beyond branding.
Every touchpoint needed to tell the same story, whether someone discovered Rhove through Instagram, a product on a shelf, a wildlife photograph, or the website.
I led the creative direction across the entire ecosystem, helping shape how the brand looked, sounded, and behaved in the world.
The website became the digital home of the movement. Rather than functioning purely as an online store, it was designed as a place where education, storytelling, products, and conservation could coexist naturally.
Every page was crafted to make visitors feel connected to the mission before ever asking them to support it.
Designing Products with Purpose
One of the most exciting parts of the project was translating Rhove’s philosophy into physical products.
Together we developed a growing collection that included apparel, accessories, and personal care products. From the Black Rhino Polo and Fitted Hat to the Africa’s Rain body care range, every product was designed to feel like an extension of the brand’s values.
The goal was never to create merchandise.
The goal was to create objects that could carry stories.
Products that would spark conversations about wildlife, Africa, conservation, and our relationship with nature.
From packaging design and naming systems to product storytelling and launch campaigns, every detail was carefully considered to create a cohesive brand experience.
Creating a Visual Language Inspired by Nature
A conservation brand lives and dies by its imagery.
To bring Rhove’s world to life, I planned and directed photography campaigns that blended wildlife, fashion, landscape, and lifestyle storytelling.
Rather than creating traditional “cause marketing” imagery, we focused on creating a visual language that felt aspirational, emotional, and deeply connected to the natural world.
The result was a growing visual library that could move seamlessly between product launches, editorial storytelling, conservation awareness campaigns, and social media content.
The brand began to feel less like an organization and more like a world people wanted to step into.
Growing a Community Around Storytelling
Perhaps the most rewarding part of the project has been building Rhove’s digital community.
From day one, we made a conscious decision not to flood social media with fundraising requests or doom-and-gloom conservation messaging.
Instead, we focused on education.
We shared stories about rhinos, highlighted wildlife photographers, featured conservationists working in the field, created educational campaigns, ran community quizzes, and opened conversations about the future of wildlife conservation.
Over time, those conversations attracted a growing audience of wildlife enthusiasts, photographers, conservation supporters, and curious newcomers who simply wanted to learn more.
What emerged wasn’t just a following.
It became a community.
The Outcome
Today, Rhove Africa exists as far more than a logo, a website, or a product collection.
It has become a living brand ecosystem built around a shared belief that storytelling can inspire conservation.
From defining the brand strategy to building the website, designing products, directing campaigns, creating content, and growing the community, my role has been to help transform a founder’s vision into a brand people can engage with, learn from, and genuinely care about.
Because the future of conservation isn’t only about protecting wildlife.
It’s about helping people feel connected to it.
And that’s exactly what Rhove was built to do.