When you picture the Arboretum, what do you see? A native lady slipper orchid in bloom? A garden of tulips in a panoply of colors? What about an apple tree?
This year, we are excited to formally launch a new visual identity that unifies our organization and underscores our role as a vital part of the University of Minnesota and the College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences. Our new brand showcases the Arboretum’s role as a “living museum,” framing the wonder and beauty of the natural world and creating an environment where curiosity and learning flourish.
Like other museums, the Arboretum’s collections are filled with treasures, albeit in the form of 28 specialty gardens, 21 display and model landscapes, 44 curated plant collections and roughly 46,000 trees. But what single plant could represent the Arboretum's unique role in one image, or hero graphic? While many plants might capture some of what the Arboretum stands for, one iconic tree rose to the top as a symbol of all the Arboretum represents.
Our new Honeycrisp Apple Tree Icon represents our organization’s legacy of excellence and innovation. It is an emblem of the Arboretum’s vital outreach and education work and our thriving research partnership with the Department of Horticultural Sciences. It also illustrates what the Arboretum is to so many: a haven in nature where curious minds of all ages can explore and connect with a community of people passionate about plants and the planet.
Cold-hardy fruit breeding at the Horticultural Research Center (HRC) at the Arboretum made the Honeycrisp apple a household name when it was released in 1991 — an iconic example of research partnership with a global impact.
We’re proud to introduce this new symbol, which represents our organization’s collaborative legacy and the Arboretum’s vision for the future.
The Honeycrisp apple was released by the University of Minnesota in 1991, changing consumer expectations for what an apple should taste like. Photo by University of Minnesota/CFANS
The design
Did you know it takes 20 to 30 years to develop a new apple variety? While the Arboretum’s new icon didn’t take decades to design, the image was cultivated with care and precision, just like the trees that fill the orchards surrounding the Arboretum and HRC.
To develop the Honeycrisp Apple Tree Icon, Arboretum graphic designer Caitlin Cave dug into the Arboretum’s photography archives, interviewed apple researchers and conducted field research of her own in the HRC’s orchards.
The resulting design is thoroughly modern while playfully harkening back to folk art imagery of the 1800s, a perfect visual symbol for the Arboretum’s past, present and future. Read on to learn more about how the icon was developed, and what it represents for the Arboretum.
Professors Leon C. Snyder (the Arboretum’s first director) and T. H. Weir examine an apple tree at the Fruit Breeding Farm, which would later become the Horticultural Research Center.
Productivity
While a hardy rootstock, sturdy branches and lush, green leaves are important to the health of an apple tree, the single most important aspect might be its fruit. The large, “explosively crisp” apples of the Honeycrisp apple tree have captivated consumers since the early ‘90s, redefining what an apple should taste like and changing the landscape of commercial fruit production in the process.
In her design, Cave rendered the apples at a larger-than-life scale, highlighting their symbolic importance and ensuring that they are recognizable as apples when the icon is used at a reduced size.
The five apples in the icon represent productivity in the Arboretum’s orchards, gardens, programming, research and more. Since cold-hardy research began at the HRC in 1908, 29 apples and 16 grape varieties have been introduced by the University’s breeding program. Each fall, more than 2,500 field trip students visit the AppleHouse and HRC to learn about the University’s legacy of cold-hardy fruit breeding and research.
The tree’s storybook apples look almost good enough to eat, inspiring curiosity in Arboretum learners of all ages about their flavor, texture and how the Honeycrisp got its explosive crunch.
The larger-than-life apples in the Honeycrisp Apple Tree Icon represent productivity. Illustration by Caitlin Cave
Precision and intention
In a commercial production apple orchard and in the research orchards surrounding the Arboretum and HRC, apple trees are carefully selected, trained and cared for with precision and intention to ensure a bountiful harvest.
This same thoughtfulness, focus and clarity is embodied by the Arboretum’s organizational value of excellence, as we strive to “generate and share exemplary knowledge, experiences and spaces” and to be “a world-class arboretum connecting people and plants for the planet.”
To capture this precision and intention in the Honeycrisp Apple Tree Icon, Cave accentuated the tree’s carefully trained branches, which tip downward to promote fruit production and allow ample light and air to reach the interior of the tree. The short trunk illustrates the dwarf properties of a commercial apple tree, which is grafted onto dwarf rootstock for easier pruning and faster, safer harvesting.
Today, visitors can explore University of Minnesota-developed apple varieties growing in a high-density production setting in the demonstration orchards at the Farm at the Arb. Through the Building a Better Arboretum Project, future visitors and field trip students at Betty’s Apple House will be able to explore apple orchards that demonstrate a variety of production techniques and learn how apples are developed and grown with precision and intention in interpretive learning stations inside the Apple House.
The Honeycrisp Apple Tree Icon highlights the trained branches and exaggerated trunk of a commercial production apple tree, like those found in the research orchards surrounding the HRC and Arboretum. Illustration by Caitlin Cave
Cultivation and care
When designing the new icon, Cave spoke to experts at the HRC to understand how commercial production and research apple trees are pruned and shaped to ensure overall plant health and higher yields. The Honeycrisp Apple Tree Icon features a strong central leader, along with a conical shape, alternate scaffold branches and a subtle graft union indicated at the base of the trunk.
This year, building on a legacy of horticultural excellence rooted in cold-hardy plant breeding, research and education, the Arboretum launched a new strategic plan, unveiling a bold vision for the future of our organization. Cave’s design hints at the Arboretum’s next chapter, with the central leader of the tree tilting slightly to the right to indicate bold progress toward the future.
The central leader of the Honeycrisp Apple Tree Icon features a slight tilt to the right, indicating the Arboretum’s progress towards the future. Illustration by Caitlin Cave
Through the Arboretum's collections and research into climate-resilient landscapes, science-based education programming for children and adults, conservation work, plant breeding and more, the Arboretum is ensuring future generations benefit from access to nature and, simply, the shade and abundant fruit of an apple tree.
We are excited to share the Arboretum’s story through our new Honeycrisp Apple Tree Icon. While the icon represents so much about our organization, some may simply see an inviting tree that beckons them to sit beneath its shade or pluck an apple from its branches. What do you see?
Cover photo by Caitlin Cave