The Royal Institution and Imperial College London’s Grantham Institute approached us to name and brand their new climate change innovation centre.
The Grantham Institute pioneers a zero-carbon future with world-class research and training, powered by Imperial College London's track record and facilities. And since 1799 many eminent scientists at the Royal Institution (Ri) have shaped the world with their discoveries, then shared them with the wider public. By locating the centre within the Ri’s historic Mayfair home, it is close to the investors, influence and knowledge that could make their ideas a reality.
The project’s working title was the ‘Centre for Climate Change Innovation’ – too close to many others and too easily turned into a clumsy acronym. So for months we searched for a name that would differentiate them from other University equivalents, climate organisations and accelerators. After assessing hundreds of names the winner was Undaunted – meaning neither discouraged nor intimidated by difficulty – which perfectly encapsulated their aims, ethos and determination to search for ways to to mitigate the effects of, and adapt to the climate crisis.
Since the world is now awash with green (and not so green) projects, cutting through with the visual branding was almost as challenging as the naming. We were keen to find something that felt both universal, but irrefutable.
Undaunted’s new symbol is the key to this scheme. At first sight, it’s based on a simple earth icon – then either in animated or static form its central section morphs into a leaf shape, visually symbolising ‘green ideas for the globe’. It's both immediately familiar, but new, all at the same time.
Not only can we rotate the symbol onto the screen, but we can also use it as a window into a brighter future, as shown above.
We’ve paired the symbol with powerful images, simple gradients and one weight of the Piek typeface from the Optimo foundry. This has an undesigned quality that echoes typewriter fonts and fits with the practical ethos of the project. We can then bring all the elements together with straightforward and to-the-point messaging.
Because many of the initiatives are at a theoretical stage, we’ve developed a photographic collage style that helps the Undaunted team showcase projects that are a work in progress, but still capture the ambition of the ideas.
This allows them to highlight the issues we are facing, or hint at an alternative, more optimistic future. Here you can see these elements coming together in static and animated form across different types of media.
In the first few months after Undaunted launched at COP27 there have already been several amazing projects coming to fruition, such as Radiant Matter’s biosequin project with Stella McCartney and The Tyre Collective, who are looking to combat tyre pollution, with many more in the pipeline.
The climate change challenge isn’t going away. But, as their name suggests, Undaunted will remain undaunted. And keep searching for solutions.
The team
- Naming and branding: Johnson Banks
- Copy lines: Chris Zacharia
- Animation: Johnson Banks and Richard Caldecott