The Naples Botanical Garden in Naples, Florida was a small garden before they started their expansion in 2008. They closed for two years and hired several well-known landscape architects to design a world-class botanical garden filled with subtropical plant treasures. The Garden also wanted to reinvent its mission, so ESI was invited to design a new online environment, graphics within the physical environment, and the branding — the invitation and identity of the Garden itself. 

From the start, we supported the Garden Committee’s efforts to build a community with local organizations and schools before the reopening. Many Garden supporters are “snowbirds” who winter in Naples, then return north. ESI created a website to reach that audience when they’re not in Naples.  People can see what’s blooming in the garden, read blogs written by Garden curators/staff, and leave their own mark by uploading photos of their own home gardens and of the Naples Botanical Garden itself.

We designed the Garden’s interpretive and signage graphics to support this community feel. The Garden is one of the country’s only subtropical gardens.  We chose a saturated color palette and created distinctive plant icons to represent each garden area, such as an orange branch to represent the Florida Garden, and a bromeliad for the Brazilian Garden. To represent the Garden as a whole, we combined all the icons into a single logo. It lets you know, at a glance, that the Garden is definitely about more than one thing And allows for more gardens to be added later without significantly changing the garden’s identity.

The new web site, like the Garden, is up and running.  Take a look and let us know what you think.