If you’ve received a membership card from us recently, you may have noticed something new—we have a new logo! We’ve just begun the process of rolling out the new logo across all of our programs, projects, and places.
This is not the first time ASWP has changed its logo. Since 1916, we’ve been represented by a Ruffed Grouse, Northern Cardinal, and a Baltimore Oriole. In 1985, a Great Horned Owl family (mom and two fledglings) took over our logo—the rendering represented the famous Larry Barth wooden owl carving still on display at Beechwood Farms Nature Reserve. Finally, in 2004, a stylized version of a Great Horned Owl was added to become the logo you’ve seen for the past 20 years.
Rather than trying to select which bird should be featured in the newest incarnation of our logo, we opted to go in a different direction. We chose a feather. Not only did it save us the challenge of picking just one bird species, it’s also a visible representation of the one thing that all birds have in common. Other animals lay eggs, fly, or have beaks. But only birds have feathers.
Look closely and you’ll see that the feather also contains elements demonstrating our mission to connect people to birds and nature. On the right of the feather, there are family members exploring nature. They’re hiking on a trail with a forest behind them and a meadow in the front. A bird soars above, provoking the child to point excitedly.
Finally, you may notice something missing. To reduce the number of words in our logo and keep the focus on what we do (and where we do it), we’ve dropped “Society of” from our logo. Audubon Society of Western Pennsylvania will continue to be our formal name.
Over the next few months, you may see both logos as we make the transition. We have a large supply of envelopes featuring the old logo that we want to use before ordering new ones. We may be moving on to a new logo, but one thing that hasn’t changed is our responsibility to reduce, reuse, and recycle whenever possible!
Story: Rachel Handel, Communications Director
