How to Design a Logo and Letterhead for an Environmental Brand

The deadline is alarmingly close and the muses forgot to show up today. The clock is ticking and you need some help. If the logo you have to deliver needs to be inspired by nature, then the following words should come in handy.

No, we’re not going to throw at you a bunch of stylized leaves and branches randomly chosen from farms, veggie meals, oil companies and attorney’s offices. We figured that it’s important to go to the resources that really have genuine strong connection to the much talked about nature. Take for instance environmental NGOs, green agencies and the like. Why? For the simple reason that these organizations have ties that go beyond a few design elements on a logo.

Like World Wide Fund (WWF), one of the most influential international environmental organizations out there. They didn’t go for the ubiquitous green, although their goals are as green as you can get. You have here an image showing the evolution of the logo (or Panda!) over the years. Without a shade of doubt it tells us that they mean business and their business is to save the endangered species on the planet. Black – white contrast functions as an unadulterated message, a signature on a contract. So, make a serious statement, drop the green, but make sure you fill in a deeper message that can survive for decades.

Greenpeace has several versions of their logo where they use various colours, usually connected to certain campaigns they are running. But it’s the iconic typography that carries the message more than the colour green which, nevertheless, is the most used ‘filling’. There’s a ‘green’ word showing up in there, so any other design elements seem redundant. So, never underestimate the power of typography to send the right ‘natural’ message.

Friends of the Earth International are the world’s largest grassroots environmental network. They campaign on some of today’s most urgent environmental and social issues. Their logo needs to appeal to a very large audience, across continents, which somehow explains the minimalist logo. They recently broadened their colour palette from green, to include red, yellow and blue which I bet it looks better on their letterhead design templates.

Last, but not least, we saved two examples of logos which make the most of design elements, literally reinforcing the words.

Thus, sometimes rather than staring at hundreds of nature inspired logos, you can just look closer at those that have been making history and have survived decades. Good luck!