Foundation Elements
The brand foundation answers why the Cornell Lab looks and sounds the way we do. These elements inspired every other design choice within the rest of these guidelines.
Mission
Our mission statement communicates the Lab’s purpose, objectives, and how we serve our audiences. It’s action-oriented, and tells the world what we do and the impact we strive to make.
To interpret and conserve the Earth’s biological diversity through research, education, and participatory science focused on birds and nature.
About Us
A succinct way to describe what we do. More ways to describe the Cornell Lab’s work.
Dedicated to advancing the understanding and protection of the natural world, the Cornell Lab joins with people from all walks of life to make new scientific discoveries, share insights, and galvanize conservation action.
Values
The Lab’s values are the beliefs that we stand for as an organization. They serve as the compass that guides our brand story, actions, behaviors and decision-making process.
More about Cornell Lab values.
| 01 | Delight in Nature and Birds |
| 02 | Keep Asking Questions |
| 03 | Respect People and Their Ideas |
| 04 | Listen Up and Link Together |
| 05 | Continuously Share and Learn |
| 06 | Build Trust Through Integrity and Honesty |
| 07 | Dream Big and Keep at It |
Audience
For the most part, the Lab’s core audience is people who already have a passionate interest in birds. But we can and should also target those who are interested in biodiversity, bioacoustics, conservation, and science at large. To further expand our audiences, we should cater to people who have a broad interest in nature.
Currently, teams at the Lab serve audiences in specific areas of this venn diagram depending on the products or programs they work on, but we should cater to people across this spectrum.
Brand Personality
Brands are like people — the more interesting their personalities, the more we want to get to know and spend time with them. This is why the Lab brand has human characteristics.
The Lab’s personality is always defined by all five traits,
yet certain traits may be more prominent than others depending on the context and audience.
More about Brand Personality.
| The Lab is… | we’re always… | but never… | so people feel… |
|---|---|---|---|
| Generous | Joyful Giving Helpful Collaborative | Owed Sanctimonious Patronizing | Impactful Inspired Fulfilled |
| Rigorous | Effective Responsible Objective | Sloppy Boring Humorless | Enlightened Confident Informed |
| Driven | Visionary Passionate Agile | Complacent Selfish Competitive | Engaged Excited Motivated |
| Inclusive | Caring Accessible Supportive | Preachy Superficial Inauthentic | Respected Supported Welcomed |
| Trustworthy | Expert Ethical Genuine | Elitist Stuffy Pompous | Safe Responsible Valued |
Brand Principles
These principles are a set of actionable statements that will support the creation of human-centered products, services, and experiences that meet our audience’s needs.
More about creating content that reflects our brand principles.
| 01 | Follow Our Values and Be Inclusive |
| 02 | Set Clear Goals |
| 03 | Design for Your Audience |
| 04 | Ground Communications in Science |
| 05 | Delight in Nature |
| 06 | Work Together |
| 07 | Measure and Adjust |