It’s over a decade since we last updated our brand. Since then, the world has changed. In the face of two enormous challenges – a biodiversity crisis and climate emergency – we need our organisation to have more impact, be better understood and better supported.

By modernising our brand, we can increase our visibility and prominence in Scotland and globally, helping us to clarify what we do and why, and building towards our new vision of  ‘a positive future for plants, people and the planet’.

Our logo, over a decade old, needed a refresh for the digital age. Our iconic symbol, a drawing of Sibbaldia procumbens, has been redrawn and refined, making it more recognisable on mobile devices.

Sibbaldia procumbens is a threatened alpine plant found in the Scottish Highlands.  It is named after Robert Sibbald, the man who both discovered it and who founded the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. As a species threatened by climate change, it perfectly reflects our mission to ‘explore, conserve and explain the world of plants’.

A key part of what we do is to engage and empower individuals, communities and partners to protect our botanic world. Visually, we want to demonstrate that ‘protection’ by allowing our Sibbaldia to wrap around and ‘hug’ people, plants and trees (as you can see here).

There will be times when we want our visual identity to take a back seat so we can showcase beautiful images of our Gardens. So, we’ve developed a series of frames that we will use as a border to our images, sometimes subtle, sometimes more prominent, using a new set of colours inspired by flora.

A new portfolio of photographs is going to help us interpret our new visual identity and is the start of a library of immersive brand images of our four Gardens, the people who visit them, and the behind-the-scenes heroes who work there.

We’ve named our new typeface Sibbaldia. Soon, this beautiful, chiselled typeface will become recognised as the ‘voice’ of our Gardens alongside our symbol, frames, colours and images creating a visual identity that sets us apart.

Finally, we have a new way of writing the names of our four Gardens. The biggest change here is that we’ve returned to capital letters, which we feel have an elegance and gravitas better suited to a Royal institution and a global centre for science, horticulture and education.

This isn’t a complete overhaul of our brand; it is a thoughtful evolution. Our aim is to meet the needs of our growing and diverse audiences, in person and online through our digital channels.

We hope you like it.