New York City Beekeepers Association
Logo & Visual Identity
Background and Strategy
The New York City Beekeepers Association (NYCBA) is a community organization of New York-area beekeepers whose mission is to educate and advise on best practices for responsible beekeeping in urban environments.
The NYCBA, which is widely credited for its efforts that helped to legalize beekeeping in New York City in 2010, wanted to reinstate its leadership position and its value as an educational hub and community that welcomes beekeeping and non-beekeeping honey lovers alike.
Logo & Visual Identity Design
NYCBA's logo was designed to express the unique NYC location of this beekeeping community. The stencil-inspired mark references the New York City skyline in an urban, graffiti-like style and whose drips of golden spray paint also allude to honey. The bee and hexagon shape were designed to feel modern and strong in appearance, like NYC itself. The mark was also designed to be simple enough to be used as a stencil for spray painting onto beehives or other appropriate settings around NYC.
An alternate version of the mark was designed to serve for co-branded NYCBA programs and initiatives. Because the organization name is quite lengthy when paired with an additional program name, a simple "NYCBA" version of the logo serves to represent the organization when co-branded with sub-programs such as the Urban Beekeeping Apprenticeship. The "NYCBA" mark also serves as an alternate stencil which can easily and legibly represent the organization when legibly stenciling the entire organization name could be a challenge.
Supporting graphics for the brand include hexagons that reference both honey comb inside a bee hive, but also the urban environment of New York City. Some hexagons features snippets of NYC landmarks. New York City is both actually and symbolically the hive of the organization.
Imagery for the site represents the diversity of NYC's beekeeping community and is projected in a fun, friendly spirit that captures a Gotham City, comic-book-like vibe. Speaker photos are stylistically treated in duotoned black and white + yellow treated images to help unify them with the NYCBA color palette while again projecting a professional yet playful vibe.
