The New Grasshopper: Our Visual Identity Review

This academic year we continued work on a five-year business plan to reinvigorate Gresham College and connect to new audiences. Part of that plan was a visual refresh, as we’d been using various elements of a visual identity that were around 30 years old.

Branding agency Johnson Banks created Gresham College’s new visual identity. Founder and Creative Director Michael Johnson said of the new brand:

“Tudor financier Thomas Gresham’s personal emblem, a grasshopper, can be seen across London. There’s one as a weathervane on The Royal Exchange, another as a sculpture in Lombard Street – and another atop the crest used for centuries by Gresham College. Our task was to retool the hopper for a digital age, carefully redrawing it to still sit above the college’s name, but readying it to spring and jump off where needed. This is combined with new colours, fonts and a more contemporary look. Our aim? To prepare Gresham College for another four hundred years of thought.”

The new visual identity keeps a strong link to our founder, Sir Thomas Gresham’s historic crest, through the use of a stylised Grasshopper.