Smart, Creative and Credible
When Emma and her team briefed me on this rebrand, it was clear it needed to be smart and purposeful. So, not just pretty for the sake of it, but considered, with a genuine rationale behind it – especially as they’d be saying goodbye to the equity they’d built with Make Your Words Work.
The new brand needed to be reflective of the amazing work Hands Down does, and on par with the caliber of brands they’re attracting and working with – such as Google, YouTube and Snapchat. It had to convey that Hands Down could be a trusted and credible partner, with the ability to deliver complex projects (despite their modest size). It needed to appeal to a wide range of “buyers”, such as procurement teams, CMOs and young executives. “We need to be trendy, without being too playful.” was one of the caveats.
Previously, MYWW’s branding had been a little busy, particularly online and across presentations, often overshadowing the content. With the rebrand, things needed to be simpler and cleaner, but still retaining something of a personality.
Pillars of Creation
Initially exploring a number of creative territories, there was a standout direction that resonated with all of us – one that put Hands Down’s new brand pillars at the centre of the visual language. Essentially, building the brand out from five considered icons, inspired by the following:
- Strategy first
- Design thinking
- Squads not silos
- Working together
- Attention to everything
I decided to use circles as a foundational shape, as there’s something about them that conveys connectivity and community. Given Hands Down’s remote first approach, and its focus on collaboration (across both teams and clients), this felt like a natural approach – if not a little cliché and obvious. But if it works, it works, right?
From icons with purpose, these would go on to form a flexible and scaleable toolkit – with the ability to be used boldly or subtly, without falling into the trap of being too busy.
Paired with a confident and bold colour palette, alongside the Northern Block’s ‘Moret’ typeface, the brand felt like it was starting to find its personality. From the website through to social posts, I worked on every touchpoint of the design rollout, with the aim of creating a cohesive brand experience, from start to finish.
Creative Spark
With the brand signed-off, it was essential that it was as easy as possible for the the team at Hands Down to implement it – as well as the creatives who would come and go, making up Hands Down’s bespoke project squads.
Clear and concise brand guidelines were created to ensure consistency was maintained, from the get-go. In order to make things as efficient as possible, templates were supplied so that the team could spend more time on producing great work, and less time thinking about how to layout a case study or social post. Whether or not this needed to be created in Illustrator, InDesign or PowerPoint – there was a template ready to go, with the ability for it to be customised. (It’s also why you’re seeing all that Lorem Ipsum and ‘Title goes here’ in all those examples above 👀)
