New Alaska Climate Adaptation Science Center Logo

The Alaska Climate Adaptation Science Center is excited to share the design of our new logo!

The update emphasizes Alaska’s iconic imagery and ever-present position at the forefront of climate change:

• The sharp-angled colored shapes symbolize the Northern Lights and ice, and hint at a climate-warming graph.
• The white mountain shape symbolizes well-known Alaska topography, the cryosphere, a variety of ecosystems, and a climate-warming graph.
• The blue shapes at the bottom symbolize the coast, freshwater and marine ecosystems, and non-mountain land areas
• The hexagonal shape enclosing the design is reminiscent of the blocky surface patterns of permafrost landscapes.

Though our look is changing, our ongoing efforts to produce Alaska-specific climate data to meet state needs around climate impacts, adaptation, and resilience remain the same. Stay tuned for changes to our website and materials as we integrate the new design!

The design process

In designing the new logo, we aimed to symbolize the main themes of the AK CASC: climate change adaptation in terrestrial and coastal environments, while also highlighting our state by making “Alaska” a central part of the design.

Early versions of the logo focused on typography but soon evolved into various shapes enclosing different design elements; other versions tried to incorporate the State of Alaska shape. An idea to “use a climate-warming graph” seemed impossible at first, but eventually became a core piece of the design, with its striking colors and distinctive shapes.

The goal of a well designed logo is to say a few things loudly, as opposed to many things softly — so we were careful to steer clear of overly detailed or literal representations of the AK CASC’s work. Review and discussion with the AK CASC communications and leadership groups yielded good feedback and more ideas to consider.

The final adjustments were the hardest. We made multiple minor edits to the sizes and positions of the various logo elements relative to each other to achieve a balanced look.