Ready for Life: Scouting's new brand welcomes in a new era
Over the years, Scouting has evolved and adapted with the times, reimagining and refreshing its image to remain as relevant today as it was more than a century ago. Today, World Scouting is taking another step forward in that journey with a newly refreshed brand that will help usher in the next decade for Scouting and the World Scout Foundation has proudly supported this development.
Inspired by the ideas and energy of a global community of more than 57 million Scouts and volunteers, World Scouting is ready to adopt a new Vision and Strategy for Scouting to be the world’s most inspiring and inclusive youth movement creating transformative learning experiences for every young person, everywhere.
The refreshed brand aims to inspire Scouts and National Scout Organizations to join World Scouting on this adventure as they continue to lead the way as an inclusive, sustainable and impactful global movement - creating opportunities for young people to discover their identity, learn new skills, serve their communities, and be ready for life.
Over the past year, and with the active support of the Foundation, World Scouting has worked to review and refresh the image of Scouting to position the Movement for the future alongside other partners and collaborators. The result is an exciting new visual identity and story for Scouting rooted in the World Scouting global mission to shape the lives of young people worldwide.
The World Scout Foundation and World Scouting extend a big thank you to the generous BP Fellows who provided funding for this initiative through the World Scout Foundation to support World Scouting's new Strategy for Scouting and refreshed brand.
The new look for Scouting includes a modern redesign of the iconic World Scout Emblem, a reimagined logo and wordmark for World Scouting, a new tagline “Ready for Life” available in multiple languages, an expanded and more vibrant colour palette, a unique and modern typeface, and a range of secondary creative visual elements to be used across all our digital, communications and marketing channels.
The iconic World Scout Emblem
Each element of the refreshed brand is unique and has a specific role to play. The World Scout Emblem dates back to the first Scouting expedition on Brownsea Island. Over the years the emblem has been refined and updated, but the meaning has never changed as a universal symbol for Scouts.
The fleur-de-lys is our compass and embodies Scouting's values, the stars stand for truth and knowledge, the bond is what brings us all together, and the circular rope in a central reef knot symbolises the unity of our global movement. The newly redesigned World Scout Emblem has been carefully crafted to remain true to the elements enshrined in the World Organization of the Scout Movement's Constitution and to honour Scouting’s heritage while evolving to introduce a more modern and practical design.
The redesigned World Scout Emblem will continue to be a symbol of belonging to the Scout Movement, worn as a badge by Scouts worldwide, and will ensure that this iconic mark remains relevant for future generations as the World Scouting brand continues to grow and evolve in a digital world. The emblem is used on millions of uniforms worldwide, for official, constitutional, and institutional purposes, as well as for hero moments and universal Scouting experiences that bring us all together. The World Scout Badge and World Scout Flag consist solely of the World Scout Emblem, and the emblem can also be used in other applications that include World Scout event logos, key educational initiatives, official certificates and awards, as well as a supporting ‘watermark’ of authenticity.
A new look for World Scouting
The World Scouting logo establishes a unique brand and identity for the organisation distinct from the World Scout Emblem as a symbol for the Scout Movement. The World Scouting logomark retains some of the key elements of the emblem with a modern and simplified look that makes it unique to the brand of World Scouting.
The name World Scouting acts as a shorthand for the World Organization of the Scout Movement and is intended to be easily identifiable by National Scout Organizations while positioning World Scouting clearly alongside partners, funders, and other collaborators.
The World Scouting logo will lead the way across World Scouting communications, marketing, and digital applications, especially at smaller sizes and brings a modern touch to the brand identity. There are two language versions of the logo in English and French, the two official languages of World Scouting. The World Scouting logo can be used by National Scout Organizations to signify and visualise their recognised status as Member Organizations of a global Movement.
In specific applications, the logomark can be used in place of the World Scouting logo, and is designed to be as versatile and creative as possible to work across multiple mediums and formats, such as for social media avatars and favicons, or small-use applications and merchandising.
A tagline that’s about being “Ready for Life”
The new tagline, "Ready for Life," encapsulates Scouting's mission to contribute to the education of young people, enabling them to be global citizens who play a constructive role in society. The tagline is simple and connects seamlessly to the Scout motto, "Be Prepared."
The tagline works well in English, as well as in French, Spanish, and Arabic as the official and working languages of World Scouting. It offers a creative brand element, separate from our logo, that can be used across a variety of digital, advertising, merchandise and campaign applications.
Creative and colourful design elements
The core World Scouting colours reflect the natural elements of the world—the oceans, forests, deserts, and flora. “Scouting Purple” remains the hero colour and is supported by a vibrant and flexible secondary colour palette that is rich and bright. The colours can be used in combination and adhere to international standards for web content accessibility and as a guide for other applications to ensure high contrast and legibility of text.
The primary typeface, Scouts GT Planar, is full of quirky details and distinctive characters that reflect the unique personality of Scouting. The type will allow World Scouting to communicate with gravitas and impact when needed, but also allows a fun and playful element by using the type in a more creative and interesting way.
Design elements — unique shapes and stitches
Supporting the creative concept for the refreshed brand is a series of secondary graphic and visual elements that help to tell the World Scouting story, and connect to the essence of Scouting. The fabric of the graphic language is made up of two elements.
First are unique shapes, which are inspired by the structure of the World Scout Emblem and the unique looks of Scout badges around the world. These shapes create a flexible and distinctive graphic language that is bold, colourful, and can move while highlighting the aspects of discovery, curiosity, and character-building experiences inherent to Scouting.
The second element is stitching. Inspired by the woven elements of Scout badges, knots and scarves, the stitching element brings a rich tapestry, patterning and unique detailing to our visual identity. The stitch design provides a graphic element that binds the visual identity together and offers a way to tell the story about the connections and friendships that Scouting creates.
An open and participatory process
The refreshed brand has been the result of an open and participatory process across the Scout Movement, led by a dedicated team of WSB staff and volunteers. Together, World Scouting partnered with Dragon Rouge, a world-class creative and marketing agency, to refresh branding and messaging for the future in line with the priorities of World Scouting's new Vision and Strategy for Scouting.
World Scouting started by listening to their global community and conducting in-depth research, focus groups and interviews about the Scout brand with National Scout Organization leadership, young people, adult volunteers, World Scout Bureau and World Scout Foundation staff, World and Regional Scout Committee members, and key partners and stakeholders involved in Scouting. Feedback was gathered about the elements of our brand to refresh at the Strategy for Scouting workshop in May 2023, and it engaged National Scout Organizations that currently use the world brand as their national brand identities. Regular progress updates were shared with WOSM governance structures and Member Organizations through in-person meetings, e-newsletters and online town halls to bring everyone along on the journey.
The refreshed brand and visual identity was approved by the World Scout Committee following their March 2024 meeting, and funding for this initiative was provided by a number of generous BP Fellows through the World Scout Foundation to support our new Strategy for Scouting and refreshed brand.