We helped one of Canadas largest companies execute a universal rebrand. The $30B organization boasts national offices, owns over 500 retail stores and has an international media broadcast division. In parallel with the $34 million dollar capital investment, we helped this iconic brand modernized their look, employee culture and consumer connection through every communication experience and touchpoint.
Supporting the new corporate positioning required a complete brand overhaul. Our design methodology and clear brand architecture supplied the foundation of the new persona. Customer-centric positioning and simplified messaging became the nucleus for all advertising and brand communications. Internally, the corporate culture mimicked this positioning for the 23,000+ employee organization through a complete workplace transformation and communication plan. The result? An engaging, educational, and inspiring workplace.
Working with Lippincott and Publicis, the internal creative team developed a system for naming and visual identities. Corporate products were evaluated to determine necessity, order and purpose. The system supported Internal, Consumer Segment, Business Segment, Media and owned products. Through the analysis, the main identity was modernized and supported through a set of master-product icons / logotype.
Brand Material
Our team led the development of the master brand guidelines and graphic toolkit, which was constructed to support and define the three core attributes of the brand — tone, content, and imagery. The succinct, ownable toolkit, covering voice, imagery, graphic devices, typography, color, etc. — was built as a cohesive family with the flexibility to work across all mediums/channels. This creative material became the fabric off of which the brand is now based.
A new visual identity became the north star for all brand material to connect with. Custom created iconography, illustration, graphic devices all use the same design methodology and characteristics — something Rogers had never seen before. As the brand evolved, a brand pattern library was built, housing assets of over 350 icons, custom shot image banks of product/lifestyle/corporate content, a constantly expanding illustration library, and a proprietary typeface.
Brand Standards
As we established the toolkit, our team built out a set of brand standards to help clarify the parameters of usage and consistent application. Building the brand in both ‘sprint’ and ‘evolution’ working models, the team refined the toolkit construction and application for each channel/medium (Advertising, Digital Signage, Retail, Spatial, Digital, Motion).
The results were re-structured brand guidelines specific to Rogers shared through a robust 250+ page brand guideline document, standardized templates, and short form education videos. The master guideline combines a broad introduction to the brand’s DNA, chaptered sections on toolkit and more detailed use-case specifications. A set of sub-guidelines was then created for company divisions in need specific application rules — Retail, Digital, Internal, Consumer Business Unit.
The application of the brand spread across every communication point imaginable. And this meant everything, from the entire retail store to marquee signs on the side of National Sports Stadiums all the way down to app icons.
Brand applications range from store graphics to digital products to stadium signage.
A family of 300+ icons reach every level of the organization.
‘Ted’ — the custom designed, proprietary typeface named after the companies founder.
Robust image libraries created for product, editorial and advertising.
