News

It’s been a busy time planning our rebrand alongside setting up our pilot centre in Barnstaple, and we’re finally ready to reveal our new identify!

The Planetary Lab is now the working name of Exeter Science Centre, and we’re really thrilled by how it sounds and what it represents. This new name better encompasses the breadth of what we do; we chose ‘Planetary’ as it emphasises our focus on global challenges and puts Earth in its universal context (more on that below) – and ‘Lab’ being a place where you can come and get stuck in!

We’re really grateful to everyone who shared their ideas and preferences during our consultation sessions, plus the branding experts around the region who have generously offered their pro tips and opinions. We worked with the brilliant Bara Studios to pull together our final logo ideas into a beautiful brand, and we love the result!

In our logo, we wanted to symbolise Earth’s swirling oceanic and atmosphere currents (which have a P and L subtly hidden around the North Atlantic Ocean!) and we love our Earthy, vibrant colour scheme.

Do you notice how Planet Earth appears rotated by 90 degrees compared to the usual image presented on Western-oriented maps? We think it’s important to look at things with a fresh perspective, which science often enables, hence the new angle – and, of course, science tells us that in space there is no ‘right way up’ (we tend to use this view for historical reasons – here’s a fascinating article on the subject)!

Seeing Earth in its universal context: it’s easy to forget that we’re just one of the lucky lifeforms that managed to survive 4.5 billion years of Earth’s turbulent history, to be here today living and (uniquely) thinking, on this uniquely habitable planet. Science is a powerful lens to look at things differently – and we have to share a quote from renowned science communicator and astronomer Carl Sagan, who wrote a moving reading to accompany the iconic image of the Pale Blue Dot (which you can watch/listen to here): “It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known.”.