Field Museum's 'Earth We're On It' rebrand declared it a science institution

Recast the natural-history museum, famous for specimens and artifacts, as what it also is: a research institution with more than 150 scientists on staff and 125 years of global scientific leadership.

The rebrand declared a mission — 'fuel a journey of discovery, enabling solutions for a brighter future' — under the line 'Earth We're On It', rolling out across advertising, signage, branded gear and the in-museum visitor experience.

No metrics in the source; the identity made the museum's scientific purpose its public declaration rather than a footnote under the dinosaurs.

In March 2018, at what Leo Burnett called 'a time when there's a widespread assault on science', the agency and its Department of Design unveiled a new brand identity for The Field Museum. The challenge was perception: Chicago's natural-history institution was widely known as the home of SUE the dinosaur and thousands of ancient specimens, but unknown for its 125 years of global leadership in the sciences, with more than 150 scientists on staff doing groundbreaking research worldwide.

The rebrand was framed as a declaration of mission rather than a visual refresh: to 'fuel a journey of discovery, enabling solutions for a brighter future', carried by the line 'Earth We're On It'. The new logo is 'inspired by discovery' — formally arranged much like the square grid used to divide an archaeological excavation site, in purposely sans-serif, energetically arranged, bold letterforms, coloured blue 'like the Earth', with the square as both foundation and building block: history, permanence, and a commitment to positive impact.

The identity was designed to appear everywhere the museum touches the public — advertising, signage, branded gear, and what visitors see and experience when they walk through the doors — making the science, not just the collection, the institution's public face.

The excavation grid does double duty: it signals archaeology and science formally, before any copy explains the 150 scientists.

'Earth We're On It' claims planetary responsibility with museum-level permanence — a mission statement that reads like a fact label.

Attacks on science gave the rebrand urgency: neutrality was no longer the right posture for a research institution.

When your most famous asset overshadows your actual work, rebrand around the work: the grid that marks a dig site says 'science' without a word.

From March 2018 the identity rolled out across the museum's advertising, signage, branded merchandise and the visitor experience inside the museum itself.