In this blog, our Chief Conservation Officer, Dr Benjamin Jones, shares the thinking behind the decision to refresh the Project Seagrass logo and wider brand identity, and explains why visibility matters so much for seagrass conservation.
Honouring our roots, looking to the future
Back in 2013, we founded Project Seagrass because we wanted to secure a future for seagrass. Since then, we have grown from a small research-led initiative into the world’s leading seagrass conservation organisation, working with communities, governments, researchers, and partners across the globe.
Over the past 13 years, our logo has been part of that journey. It has represented our science, our partnerships, our campaigns, our conservation and restoration work, and our commitment to bringing seagrass into public and political view. It appeared on the first stickers and leaflets we produced for work in Wakatobi National Park, Indonesia. More recently, it has appeared in places we could never have imagined when Project Seagrass first began, including at the start of every concert in our patrons Coldplay’s Music of the Spheres World Tour.
I’m often asked what inspired the emblem we use. The original emblem was inspired by the below image, that movement of seagrass beneath the waves. For me, this image became a symbol of what Project Seagrass was created to do; build a movement powerful enough to create a wave of change for seagrass meadows around the world.
Our refreshed logo is not a dramatic departure from that history, but an evolution.
The circular wave of change for seagrass remains central to our identity, reflecting the change we want to see for seagrass meadows globally. This maintains a clear link with the logo that has represented Project Seagrass over the past decade. But the refreshed design gives us a cleaner, more confident, and more adaptable identity for the next stage of our work.
Why now?
Project Seagrass is now 13 years old, and our brand refresh comes at the mid-point of our 2022-2031 strategic plan.
This is also a critical decade for the ocean. Around the world, governments, communities, and organisations are making decisions that will shape the future of marine and coastal ecosystems for generations and seagrass must be part of those decisions.
One of the central aims of our strategic plan is for Project Seagrass to be a global champion for seagrass ecosystems. That means being trusted, recognised, and effective. It means continuing to lead through science, collaboration, community action, policy, and education. It also means communicating in a way that is clear, accessible, and ambitious.
The timing also reflects where Project Seagrass is heading. With our selection as a strategic partner of the King Charles III Charitable Fund, and the launch of our Global Seagrass Challenge Fund, we are entering an important new phase of our work. We need a visual identity that can support that ambition, helping us engage new audiences, work with new partners, and continue building the global wave of change that seagrass needs.
Our refreshed logo is part of that ambition. It signals that Project Seagrass is growing, evolving and ready for the next stage of our work. It reflects our commitment to working globally while staying rooted in the values that have always guided us: science-led, collaborative, equitable, optimistic, and passionate.
Why we refreshed our logo
In late 2025, we ran a survey to better understand how people perceived our old logo and what it communicated about Project Seagrass.
The results showed that our old logo was clearly associated with the environment. Many respondents felt that it looked professional, and easy to recognise. That told us something important. The foundations of our visual identity were strong.
But the survey also highlighted where we needed to improve. The old logo did not stand out when compared with other environmental organisations. Only around a third of respondents agreed that it stood out in that wider landscape. For an organisation whose role is to champion one of the world’s most overlooked marine ecosystems, that’s obviously important.
Seagrass remains hidden in public awareness, policy debates, and conservation priorities, relative to other habitats and species. If Project Seagrass is to continue raising the visibility of seagrass globally, our own identity needs to be clear, distinctive, and recognisable. The purpose of this refresh was therefore not to start again. It was to strengthen what was already there.
Making Project Seagrass more distinctive
The conservation sector is full of important organisations doing vital work. But it is also crowded and distinctiveness matters.
A logo isn’t just an image on a website, social media profile, or report. It’s a tool that helps people recognise who is speaking, what we stand for, and why our work matters. For Project Seagrass, it also has to do something more specific. It has to help make an overlooked marine ecosystem visible.
Our refreshed logo keeps continuity with our original identity while improving clarity, balance, and impact. It gives us a stronger visual presence across reports, policy briefings, social media, campaigns, and more. It also gives us a more flexible identity that can work alongside partners, funders and collaborators while still being recognisably Project Seagrass.
Ultimately, to make seagrass visible, we also need to be visible ourselves.
Designed in-house
I designed the refreshed logo in-house, building on the original Project Seagrass logo that I created when the organisation was first established.
This refresh was never about replacing our identity or moving away from our history. It was about taking something familiar and making it work harder for the organisation we have become. The refreshed logo carries forward the circular wave of change for seagrass that has represented Project Seagrass for more than a decade, while giving us a cleaner, more flexible, and more confident visual platform for the future.
I’d also like to thank award-winning artist and author Janina Rossiter for her support with the development of ideas as part of this process, building upon our collaboration as part of the Coldplay Creative Competition. Her creative input helped us think more broadly about how seagrass can be represented visually, and how our identity could better reflect both the movement and life found within seagrass meadows, even if those ideas weren’t used.
Broadening our colours
During 2025, Project Seagrass was also delighted to be a successful applicant to the Applied Works Springboard programme. Through this pro bono support, Applied Works helped us design strategies to encourage participation with our citizen science programme SeagrassSpotter alongside wider work on the colour palettes and fonts we use to communicate our work.
Previously, we had predominantly used greens throughout our communications, across our website, on our materials, and more. Green will always be important to Project Seagrass, but seagrass meadows are not only green. They are shaped by the colours of the ocean, sand, sediments, sunlight, leaves, roots, flowers, animals, and coastal communities. A browse through seagrass imagery shows just how vibrant they can be.
Our work with Applied Works helped us broaden our colour palette to better reflect and celebrate the colours found within seagrass meadows and the wider marine environments they support. You’ll begin to see these reflected on our website and materials.
Improving accessibility and clarity
A strong brand also needs to be accessible and inclusive. As part of this refresh, we have moved to using Inclusive Sans as our primary communications font. This supports clearer communication across digital and printed materials and helps make our work easier to read and engage with.
The refreshed logo has also been designed to be clearer, more adaptable, and more effective across different formats. It works better at small sizes, in presentations, alongside our partners, and more.
Where you’ll see the updates
You’ll start seeing the updated logo and branding across Project Seagrass communications, including:
- our website and digital platforms
- emails and correspondence
- new leaflets, reports, and printed materials
- presentations, events, and public engagement materials
- SeagrassSpotter and other digital tools
As part of our commitment to sustainability, we will continue to use and distribute existing leaflets and materials that carry our old logo until these have all been used. This means there will be a transition period where both the old and refreshed branding are visible.
We believe this is the right approach. A brand refresh should not mean unnecessary waste.
The same mission, a clearer identity
Although our logo has evolved, our purpose remains unchanged. We are still here to secure a future for seagrass and to create the wave of change that seagrass needs.
Our refreshed brand gives us a stronger platform to tell the story of seagrass, to support our partners, to engage new audiences, and to champion the meadows that are so often hidden beneath the waves.
This is not just about how Project Seagrass looks. It is about helping more people see what seagrass is, why it matters, and why it urgently needs our collective action.
Questions and feedback
We would love to hear your feedback on our new look. If you have any questions or comments, please contact us at info@projectseagrass.org.
FAQs
No. This is a refresh of our existing brand, not a full rebrand. We are refining the core elements that people already recognise as Project Seagrass, including the circular wave of change for seagrass, while updating the logo, colour palette, fonts, and guidance to make our identity clearer, more distinctive and easier to use across digital and printed materials. The refresh builds on the visual identity we have developed over the past 13 years. It helps us communicate more consistently, improve accessibility, and better reflect the Ocean and seagrass meadows at the heart of our work.
The refresh has been delivered at minimal cost. The logo design was completed in-house, and our survey was also developed and run internally. Support from Applied Works, through the AW Springboard programme, was provided pro bono and helped us strengthen our approach to colour, typography, and digital engagement. We are also taking a sustainable approach to rollout. Existing printed materials with our previous logo will continue to be used until they have been distributed, rather than being replaced unnecessarily. New branding will be introduced gradually across digital platforms, new materials, and future communications.
The circular seagrass wave has been part of Project Seagrass since the beginning and it remains one of the most recognisable elements of our visual identity. We call this our Wave of Change for Seagrass. It reflects the positive change we want to see for seagrass meadows globally, and the growing global movement of people, communities, researchers, and organisations working to secure their future.
As part of the refresh, we explored a range of ideas, including designs that incorporated fish, people, biodiversity, and other elements of seagrass ecosystems. While these ideas helped us think creatively about what Project Seagrass represents, they also felt like too much of a departure from our existing identity.
Retaining the Wave of Change for Seagrass allowed us to evolve the logo without losing the connection to our history. It helps us remain recognisably Project Seagrass, while giving the brand a clearer, more confident, and more adaptable visual identity for the future.
Seagrass still needs a wave of change. Its future still needs to be secured. That is why this symbol remains at the heart of our refreshed brand.
No. The logo refresh will not affect our programmes or conservation work. The refresh has been delivered at minimal cost, with the logo created in-house. It has not required us to redirect resources away from our conservation, research, or community engagement work.
The rollout will also be phased. You may continue to see our old logo on existing leaflets, reports, merchandise, or materials for a while. As part of our commitment to sustainability, we will continue using these materials until they have been distributed, rather than replacing them unnecessarily. New materials will use the refreshed logo and branding.
If you are working with Project Seagrass on an upcoming project, event, publication, campaign, or activity and need to use our logo, please get in touch with us. We can provide the correct version of the refreshed logo, along with guidance on how it should be used. Please contact: info@projectseagrass.org
No specific events or campaigns are planned just for the logo launch. The refreshed logo will become part of our ongoing work as we continue to champion seagrass ecosystems globally, support community action, develop science and policy, and inspire more people to help secure a future for seagrass.
Our logo has evolved, but the challenge remains the same. Seagrass is still overlooked, undervalued and under threat. We hope our refreshed identity will help more people recognise Project Seagrass, connect with our mission, and join the growing wave of change for seagrass.
