NATIONAL BOTANIC GARDEN
OF WALES
Saving Pollinators Assurance Scheme
Branding - Illustration - Design
The Brief
The National Botanic Garden of Wales were looking to create a brand to promote and give a face to their new Pollinators scheme. An eye-catching visual identity was needed which could be used across a diverse range of materials and locations, for a diverse target audience.
The Saving Pollinators Assurance Scheme is headed by the Botanic Garden's Science team and backed by intensive research which includes DNA barcoding. The aim of the scheme is to promote the sale of pollinator friendly plants grown without synthetic insecticides which will help to prevent pollinator declines as well as benefiting insect-eating wildlife such as hedgehogs, sparrows and frogs.
The Garden, along with approved growers and nurseries across Wales, sell plants for this purpose; the aim of this brand was to create a visual identity which could be displayed clearly on these plants, creating a consistent, recognisable brand image and making it clear that by purchasing you are supporting pollinators and buying a plane which has been grown without the use of synthetic insecticides and peat compost.
Alongside the plant sales materials, the brief also included the need for the brand to be applicable across banners, flags, signage, leaflets, booklets, digital, web, seed packets and posters.
Initial brand development, exploring the combination of the three key elements of the scheme
Development
DNA evidence forms the backbone of the Pollinators programme, something unique from other pollinator schemes, this was therefore a key element which should feature in the brand.
We explored line icons as a clean and contemporary way of portraying the three key elements, individually or as an ensemble.
Spring is a key time for Pollinators, we therefore wanted to reflect this in the brand, with a set of fresh, bright colours, which complement eachother perfectly, or can work when use on their own.
As the logo also had to be billingual, a bold, yet easily legible font was needed. We explored how effectively they worked in different formats and shape layouts.
This brand’s purpose is to provide science backed guidance, knowledge and plants to a varied audience, we therefore felt a stamp or seal of authenticity style to the logo would help convey this to the market. This style of design is versatile and can be created to stand on a range of backgrounds and be easily recognised and understood by the audience.
Primary Logo
Secondary Logo
The Logos
The final logo design is a combination of two separate routes we initially explored; it combines the contemporary line icon style and three symbol arrangement of one with the bright, Spring like colour palette and circular stamp style of another. The result is a versatile, eye catching logo which encompasses the three key areas of
the Pollinator’s scheme and allows the bilingual name to be clearly and boldly displayed alongside.
As one of the key jobs of this logo is to identify, on a tag or signage for example, certain plants which are peat and insecticide free and suitable for Pollinators, I wanted to give the logo an image of being a stamp or seal of authenticity, conveying the importance and credibility of the Saving Pollinators scheme. It was also vital that this ident could sit on a range of backgrounds and be easily recognised and understood by the audience. To ensure this, we created a version of the logo which contains an off white stroke around the design for use on coloured or
detailed backgrounds.
The secondary logo was created for use in situations where the primary logo does not suit, for example if the logo becomes too small for the copy to be legible.
The Icons
The Pollinator's icons represent the three key elements of the Saving Pollinators Scheme. They can be used individually, as badge icons, with or without copy, as a lock up of all three or with their full titles.
The Icons
Icon Cluster
The Icons with their titles
The Badge Icons
The Illustrations
As part of the scheme, the National Botanic Garden of Wales also wanted to sell their own branded packets of wildflower seeds, which visitors could purchase and plant, helping the pollinators in their own gardens.
These illustrations were created to sit harmoniously alongside and compliment the clean, bold style of the brand's logo and graphics.
The brand in use at the gardens and nurseries
