Branding Guide Lines

Key points from Branding

They say in their branding guide lines, 'The National Trust style is designed to inspire people, by putting the supporter first, helping us to be welcoming inviting, talking in a warm and authentic way, and celebrating places.' 

  The oak leaf symbol, which we’ve used since the 1930s, they dropped the ‘The’, to make them less formal. The oak leaf and logotype together form their logo. It can be any of their colours. The oak leaf and logotype must both be in the same colour. Wherever possible, the layout of covers and posters is based on the idea of a picture in a frame. The frame is where we invite people in. 

The frame is the area surrounding the picture, and includes the logotype, a frame-line and text. They have a palette of 21 colours, inspired by the rich colours found in the Trust, from forests to fabrics. All are fresh and inviting. 

 They have our own typeface, designed to be warm and easy to read: modern and yet timeless too. It’s inspired by a 1748 inscription, originally in the grotto at Stourhead. They have four types of fonts in the National trust family, Display, Bold Regular and Italic. They use photographs as a key tool to inspire supporters to do more with us. They should therefore draw people in: they should be evocative, atmospheric and intriguing. Photographs should be relaxed and natural, and never artificial or contrived. Illustrations should be powerfully expressive, capturing the illustrator’s experience of a National Trust place.