Changing Our Spots
Unveiling a new look for SEB
By Sabina Baba The old saying “leopards never change their spots” may well be true in genetic terms, backed up by a wealth of scientific studies on coat marking patterns in big cats, and it may be true when applied to individuals, who are slow to change their real character. But for organisations, their visual appearance often needs to evolve to keep them relevant, competitive and distinctive. As we launch and roll out the new brand for SEB, you’ll see that whilst our look may be different we have not changed our DNA in any way!
As the industry in which we operate and the needs of our members continuously change, so has our organisation been evolving to adapt to these changes. Moving into Charles Darwin House in 2010 to form a scientific hub for biological organisations and the appointment of a new CEO in 2011 were catalysts for change within the SEB. This has triggered a period of review for the Society and we have begun to take a close look at the work we do and the support we offer to the scientific community.
Over the past few years you have seen, and been a part of, us becoming an organisation that puts its members and their needs at the heart of everything we do. Through various surveys, we have continuously asked for your feedback, opinion and guidance on how we can better serve the scientific community. And you have kindly taken the time to respond to these, making your voice heard and your needs known! As a result you have seen us improving the services that we offer: from technical aspects like improving the membership and conference registration processes, to more impactful things such as building collaborations with other Biological Societies to increase benefits for our members, reviewing the career services and support we provide, launching new publications and increasing our financial support through grants. But mostly you have seen the SEB community grow, having significantly increased the number of members and expanded our reach and support in more countries than ever.
As we have grown and evolved, we had, for a while, realised that the SEB brand didn’t reflect our organisation’s or our members’ ambitions for the specialty/ sector. Our brand was rather corporate, a little dull and not especially warm. It wasn’t a brand that stood out, or appealed to both the established as well as the younger generation of scientists, which is something we are seeking to do more of. Nor was it a brand that reflected the friendly, welcoming nature of our membership, or the excitement, innovation and challenge of the science that we share. What our brand was doing for us was simply helping to identify who we are – a bit like a name tag. We needed more than that; we needed a brand that highlighted our personality, our services and the benefits of belonging to our community. We needed a brand that would bring value to us and to you, our members, both now and in the long term. This had to be more than a logo, it had to be a new approach to communicating, presenting ourselves and the way we work. To achieve this we embarked on a collaborative project with brand identity consultant Mark Radda, who helped us analyse what was at the heart of the SEB and create our vision.
A JOURNEY TO THE “CENTRE” OF... THE SEB!
To help us create a brand that truly reflected who we are we needed to go on a journey of re-discovery, to identify what is at the heart of the SEB and what makes SEB and our scientific community special. We wanted to learn what people valued and enjoyed about us and how they saw us.And so we spoke to members of the SEB Council – people who had a great understanding of the organisation and our ambitions. But most importantly we circulated a survey to ask you – our members – what you value most about the SEB, what you think makes us different and how you wanted us to be in the future. And here is what you told us...
“SEB has fostered to my networking and it has really helped me reach from my PhD to my second postdoc position”
“SEB is very much supportive for students and young scientists for career development”
“I feel very supported and reassured by being a member, which is important as an Early Career Researcher”
“It is a vibrant community that is always welcoming and helpful”
“I value the sense of community support and collaboration. The main meeting is a real event which is affordable and friendly”
“A friendly and clever community, where you can share your ideas and learn more”
“The opportunity to broaden my mind outside my own very narrow field of research and talk to scientists from all over the world working across all disciplines”
“An opportunity to meet colleagues from diverse fields of biology and find inspiring common topics across specialist disciplines”
What’s at the heart of SEB?
The support for scientists, a strong community, the multidisciplinary nature of our membership and the diversity of the science we cover, were the aspects that you valued most about the SEB.
What makes SEB different?
We learned from you that the friendly and welcoming feeling of the Society and the sense of fun of the community is what makes us different.
“It is a friendly, welcoming and supportive Society. Fun people making science approachable!”
“Its friendly atmosphere that provides a good training ground for young scientists”
“The friendliness of all the people who run the SEB – it’s very inclusive and welcoming”
What you wanted to see from us in the future?
You wanted us to be “more innovative and bold” and be clearer about what we stand for and why. More importantly you wanted the SEB community to continue to grow and to attract people from further geographical areas and backgrounds.
EXTRAORDINARY CONNECTIONS
Through a series of workshops with committee and staff members we looked at what we learned about the SEB and it soon became very clear what our role was in the community and what SEB meant to our members. And we arrived at the brand idea that summed it all up:
EXTRAORDINARY CONNECTIONS
This single phrase helped to express the scientific and human connections we foster – the connections that our members make with each other. Through the cross-fertilisation of ideas and disciplines, we help inspire extraordinary connections in science. Though bringing people together and providing a platform for sharing learning and experience, we foster connections amongst scientists. We help create links between new and established scientists, between laboratories and across countries and continents. As a result of these connections, extraordinary experimentation and extraordinary opportunities are born. New theories, new approaches and new lines of discovery take form. And most importantly new collaborations are created.