A brand refresh to consolidate the company with their market.
Rebranding a business doesn’t always call for a complete overhaul of the brand – and Crate47’s rebrand for Schneider is just such a case. The brand strategy called for a consolidation within their market rather than a repositioning. Their original brand had served them well over the years, but it was in need of an update to the logo, typography, and company colour palette. Overall we wanted a more modern look to the corporate identity with a balanced logo design to denote stability which tied in with the client’s aim of taking the company forward and expanding their reach – good reasons for rebranding a business.
Client
Schneider Financial Services
Year
2020
Services
Branding
Brand Strategy
Print Design
Web Design
Web Development
Sector
Financial Services
Updating the brand with a subtle logo redesign.
We felt that the original logo design needed greater strength and clarity. In the original, the lion figure was small and was tight on top of the lettering. This, together with the subheading being in the same font as the name, meant that everything seemed too close together – there needed to be more of a hierarchy of information. For our logo redesign, we moved these branding elements apart so that everything had some space. We changed the ‘FINANCIAL SOLUTIONS’ subheading to a clean sans serif font and made the lettering smaller.
This in turn gave greater weight to the company name itself where we retained the original typeface. We then strengthened the outline of the lion silhouette creating increased definition, particularly around the head and mane, so as to create more of a ‘marque’ rather than an illustration. This could then also be used as a stand-alone brand element where it was unnecessary to use the full logo. When rebranding a business, it’s these seemingly subtle changes that can make a big difference to the way a brand is perceived.
Unified branding for strong visual identity.
With the lion having a stronger, more defined heraldic shape it was possible to create a heavy outline version that could be enlarged and used to give an extra dimension to the branding. We opted to use the same san serif typeface as the logo subheading throughout the branding to give it unity and retain the more modern feel we wanted for the overall visual identity. To this end, we also introduced a new colour palette of dark blue, light grey, and white, which was both strong and fresh. Rebranding a business is often done to update a company’s image, and changing the colours they use can have a significant effect on achieving this.
Application of the rebranding.
Crate47 is a full-service creative agency, which means that in addition to rebranding a business, we can also undertake the application of the brand. In the case of Schneider, this took the form of print and web design. When it came to designing the company stationery we separated the lion marque from the written logo but retained the proportions of the main brand elements while keeping them centred. We then introduced the enlarged lion outline as a background ‘watermark’ tint striding in from the side on all print items denoting strength and resolve.
With the website design we were able to use the new colour palette to dramatic effect, such as on the home page with the white logo standing out starkly against a cityscape of strong dark blue hues. With the profile pictures, we didn’t want the usual corporate headshots. Instead, we showed three-quarter-length figures with a time-lapse office scene behind them portraying the company as busy with a solid team of people who know what they’re doing. A new website design is an important part of rebranding a business, often being the first impression potential clients get.
