What's New at Ramsar

New logo for the Ramsar Convention

Old logo

At the 21^st meeting of the Standing Committee a few weeks ago, it was decided (Decision SC21.4) to adopt a new corporate design for the Convention on Wetlands. While the old "hastily departing bird of no known species" logo has served the Convention very well indeed, it was agreed that the time had come for a fresh, more modern image for Ramsar - one that would reflect the growing appreciation of wetlands for the broad range of functions they perform and services they provide for all species of life on the planet.

The renowned graphic design company Saatchi and Saatchi were engaged and prepared the new image for the Convention. As professionals in creating corporate images and designs, Saatchi and Saatchi have provided the Convention with a logo that consolidates the themes of the Convention now and for the future. The word "Ramsar" has become the central element of promoting our work through its incorporation into the logo itself. The turquoise colour (not shown here to best advantage), fading from dark to light, symbolises water in all its forms - the essence of wetlands. The square design represents the stability and solidity of the Convention, and the internal curved lines symbolise the flowing of water and evaporation, and living matter. In their presentation to the Standing Committee, Saatchi and Saatchi stressed that the new design has those vital elements of coherence, flexibility and strength.

In addition, the new logo is accompanied by a typography of a more institutional character, increasing the intrinsic strength of the Ramsar identity. Saatchi and Saatchi are providing the new logo in a number of incarnations, that is, with the name of the Convention present in all three working languages (as here), in each of the languages, and with none of them (for use on pins, ties, watches, rings, earrings, and nose-studs).

The new Ramsar image will be launched on 1 January 1999, and – though existing stocks of materials will be used until they’re gone -- all the new materials produced by the Bureau, letterhead paper, envelopes, nose-studs, the Web site, etc., will feature this striking new face of the Convention. Guidelines are being prepared to assist others in using the logo, and these will be available in the near future, along with bromide samples and electronic copies of the design in TIFF, EPS, BMP, JPG, etc. Web Captains who have featured our old logo on their sites can replace globally just by the simple renaming of the file: hey presto!.

Friends of Ramsar who have commissioned expensive plaques and tableaux for the entrances of their Ramsar sites, and for their baseball hats, need not necessarily run out and commission new expensive plaques and tableaux, or hats – the former logo, with its vibrant green and somber blue ejecta, will be recognizable into the future. But after 1 January, real fans are requested to sew this new patch onto their jerseys.

For further information, please contact the Ramsar Convention Bureau, Rue Mauverney 28, CH-1196 Gland, Switzerland (tel +41 22 999 0170, fax +41 22 999 0169, e-mail ). Posted 27 November 1998, Dwight Peck, Ramsar.