Jony Ive and his team at LoveFrom have made a brand new design for King Charles III called the “Astra Carta” seal. The seal is supposed to represent the UK’s call to motion for private and non-private sectors to work together on responsible and sustainable use of outer space. It marks his second project for King Charles this 12 months after LoveFrom made a royal emblem to herald the King’s recent coronation earlier.
The seal, which is animated on the sustainability initiative’s official site, is a circular badge with the all-caps Latin words “ASTRA CARTA” planted in the center beneath a crown. In the middle, a blue dot represents the planet Earth, while constellations, the Sun, the Moon, and the flowery path taken by Venus surround it. Around the surface edge, smaller text reads, “To look after the infinite wonders of the universe,” paired with a Latin interpretation of the identical phrase.
Ive described his team’s approach to the design in a blurb from the positioning:
“We were fascinated by the celestial rhythms that were illuminated during this design process, and the way they’re profoundly connected to the patterns of life on Earth. This feels a vital time to do more to guard the natural world within the broadest sense, and we’re deeply honoured to have been capable of contribute to this necessary and pioneering project.”
In typical fashion, LoveFrom discusses intimately on the positioning the way it arrived at this design, breaking down sections of the work to point out the way it arrived at the general image. As a part of that, it shows a flowery “sacred geometry” of swirls and features that, at first glance, might remind certainly one of that famously overwrought “Pepsi energy fields” design document, except that the path of Venus it draws its inspiration from is an actual thing and truly is sensible on this context:
It’s not the simplicity we’ve come to expect from Ive-led projects like iOS 7, but his work here is consistent with designs just like the Terra Carta seal the group created for the initiative in 2021, again highlighting sustainable business practices within the country. There, the group sought to “reinforce the sense of harmony and fertility, allowing natural world to softly take control,” leading to something more elaborate than Ive is often known for, an ornateness that has a throughline on this series of seals.