New York Botanical Garden’s New Brand Beckons at Flower Power
By Marissa Ferrari, Creative Director, Sustainable Economies
Quick answer: New York Botanical Garden completed a full rebrand in 2024 with the agency Wolff Olins, built around the motto “Do right by nature.” The new brand system — a custom logo font called New York Botanical Gothic, a 23-color palette, and a vivid photography style — comes to life in Flower Power, a 2026 special exhibition that reimagines the garden through the lens of 1960s counterculture and the era’s iconic environmental posters.
What is a botanical garden brand?
For a nonprofit, a brand is not a logo — it’s the full set of feelings, ideas, images, and associations that visitors, donors, and members attach to the organization. A logo is simply one tool used to shape that perception.
What does a full brand system include?
Every branding process looks a little different, but a complete nonprofit brand system typically includes:
- Brand strategy – connects organizational strategy to audience experience
- Brand messaging – key messages and tone of voice
- Logo
- Font family – a principal font and secondary fonts
- Color palette
- Brand pattern system – icons, backgrounds, social media extensions, and other visual assets
What is New York Botanical Garden’s new brand?
NYBG completed a full rebrand in 2024, led by the agency Wolff Olins. The brand strategy is captured in a single motto: “Do right by nature.” The system includes a redesigned logo with a custom typeface, an expanded color palette, and a photography style NYBG describes as “nature at its most vibrant, most intimate, and most astounding.”
The sections below unpack how each of these elements shows up in Flower Power.
What is NYBG’s new logo font?
The new custom typeface is called New York Botanical Gothic. According to NYBG’s brand team, it moves the garden’s identity away from formality and toward energy — its organic letterforms echo shapes found in nature (bees, dewdrops, succulents) as well as the vitality of New York City itself.
Notably, NYBG says the font “draws upon notable posters from the environmental movement of the 1960s and ’70s” — the direct thread connecting the new brand to the Flower Power exhibition.
What is Flower Power at NYBG?
Flower Power is a special exhibition that transforms NYBG’s most-visited locations into larger-than-life interpretations of 1960s spirit — bold botanical displays, era-appropriate visual art and photography, music, and immersive installations.
NYBG describes it as an exhibit that channels the spirit of the ’60s as a joyous celebration of flowers as enduring icons of peace and love, transporting visitors to a time when hippie culture emphasized connection between people and the natural world.
What colors are in NYBG’s new brand palette?
The refreshed palette includes 23 hues, among them “Siberian Iris,” “Amaryllis,” and “Sanguisorba.” Flower Power incorporates these colors throughout both the organic plant displays and the exhibition’s artistic elements, subtly tying the seasonal show back to the permanent brand system.
How does Flower Power connect to NYBG’s mission?
Beyond the visual nostalgia, Flower Power reflects NYBG’s core mission: advancing lasting benefit for nature and communities through scientific research, plant conservation, and education. NYBG frames the exhibit and the brand together as capturing “the electric feeling of discovery we experience in the lab and the field.”
Conclusion
NYBG’s 2024 rebrand was never just a new logo — it was a strategic commitment to “do right by nature,” expressed through a custom typeface rooted in organic form, a vivid 23-color palette, and a photography style built to feel alive. Flower Power shows what happens when that brand system is put into motion: the exhibition doesn’t just borrow 1960s nostalgia, it draws a direct line from the environmental posters of that era to NYBG’s own visual identity today. The result is a brand experience that makes the garden’s mission — discovery, conservation, and connection to nature — feel immediate and felt, not just stated.
FAQ
When did New York Botanical Garden rebrand?
NYBG completed a full rebrand in 2024, led by the branding agency Wolff Olins.
What is NYBG’s brand motto?
“Do right by nature.”
What font does New York Botanical Garden use in its new logo?
A custom typeface called New York Botanical Gothic, designed with organic, nature-inspired letterforms.
How many colors are in NYBG’s brand palette?
23 hues, including shades named Siberian Iris, Amaryllis, and Sanguisorba.
What is the Flower Power exhibition?
A special exhibition at New York Botanical Garden that reimagines the garden’s most-visited spaces through 1960s counterculture aesthetics, connecting the era’s environmental-movement imagery to NYBG’s new brand identity.
